Prime Minister's Questions

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Prime Minister's Questions , officially Questions to the Prime Minister ( English for: "Questions to the Prime Minister", generally abbreviated to PMQ or PMQs ) is the name for an institutionalized question time in the British House of Commons , in which the Prime Minister is accountable for the work of the Government is filing.

history

Prime Minister Harold Macmillan experimented with various formats of question time during his tenure, which resulted in Prime Minister's Questions in 1961 .

Until 1997 the PMQs lasted a quarter of an hour and took place on Tuesdays and Thursdays. One of the first official acts of the Blair administration with regard to parliamentary rules of procedure was the consolidation into half-hour Question Time on Wednesday.

Speaker John Bercow suggested in December 2009 that Question Time be postponed or doubled in order to increase the Chamber's conference discipline.

procedure

After the Speaker has called Question Time , a member of the Chamber traditionally asks the Prime Minister to list his daily appointments with the formula “Number One, Mr Speaker”. The Prime Minister complies with this request by referring to discussions with other ministers in addition to his obligations in the House of Commons. If necessary, he addresses important, current events before answering this question. The MP can then ask a supplementary question about another topic on the Prime Minister's agenda.

The session always opens with the question of the prime minister's daily routine, because until recently every member of the government could answer the questions instead of the head of government . This enabled the Prime Minister to avoid answering the questions in person, as a UK rule of Parliament says that whoever answers a MP's question is also responsible for the questions that follow. When asked about his daily routine, however, the head of government himself has to provide information, and thus also to all follow-up questions. The other main reason for choosing the first question is that only this question needs to be submitted in writing before Question Time begins. In this way, the essential questions can be dealt with in an open speech duel without prepared answers.

The opposition leader has six questions, which are usually divided into two groups of three. The leader of the third largest party can ask two questions. The speaker tries to alternate between questions from the ruling party and the opposition party. British MPs without official position, known as backbenchers (Engl. Backbench MPs ) who want to ask a question to the Prime Minister must be on a list, known as the Order Paper , Enter. In a lottery procedure , a random order is then determined in which the representatives are called by the Speaker of the House of Commons (lower house) . MEPs who do not get a good place in the lottery or who did not take part in the draw can also be called to ensure a balance between the parties.

If the head of government cannot appear at the meeting due to official obligations, he is represented by the deputy prime minister ( deputy prime minister or first secretary of state ) or, if he is unable to do so , by the leader of the lower house (i.e. the chairman of the government faction). It is customary in this case for the opposition leader and the head of the third largest party to send their deputies.

Since the parliamentary sessions have been televised, the Prime Minister's Questions have become an important part of UK political culture. Since the Wednesday sessions often have interesting arguments, they are very popular and the demand for spectator tickets is high.

The Prime Minister's Questions were also broadcast on the American cable station C-SPAN and parodied in skits on the television program Saturday Night Live .

Web links

Supporting documents and comments

  1. ^ Conor, Allan: What Is PMQs? , in: Prime Minister's Questions Podcast , BBC , October 10, 2007. Retrieved June 8, 2010.
  2. ↑ BBC: What is prime minister's questions? , June 2, 2010. Retrieved June 8, 2010.
  3. ^ Morris, Nigel, Switch PMQs so MPs stay around longer , in: The Independent , December 1, 2009. Retrieved June 8, 2010.