Wash-up

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The wash-up or wash-up period is the last days of the parliament of the United Kingdom between the announcement of the date of the dissolution of parliament and the early elections by the Prime Minister or the Prime Minister and the time when Parliament finishes its work. The wash-up usually only lasts a few days.

background

Traditionally in the UK, bills cannot be carried over from one legislative term to the next. While bills have been allowed to continue in the next session since 2004 , this does not apply to a new legislative period in which the newly elected parliament meets again. A legislative project could at best be restarted with the same content after a new election.

During the wash-up, the government is therefore trying, in an urgent procedure, to pass open projects and draft laws for which sufficient majorities are emerging. Since there is not enough time to complete the parliamentary examination in the usual way during this period, the government has to rely on cooperation with the opposition . The wash-up shortens the parliamentary examination and discussion of a draft law due to the time pressure. Therefore, compromise drafts with amendments are often pushed through. Sometimes, when negotiating with MPs from its own ruling party and the opposition, the government is willing to drop certain bills or clauses in order to secure the passage of others. Theoretically, it is possible that during the wash-up, laws with shorter procedural times ( fiscal policy laws such as appropriation bills or finance bills ) go through the full legislative procedure in both chambers of parliament, from introduction to adoption.

The number of laws passed during the wash-up is usually in double digits. In the five parliaments from 1983 to 2005, a total of 82 government bills and 29 private members' bills were passed as part of the wash-up .

criticism

Due to the necessary compromises and the lack of parliamentary diligence in the wash-up, there was repeated criticism of the procedure. This criticism reached its climax when, in the 2010 wash-up, parliament was asked to pass a constitutional bill , the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 . The bill was passed on April 8, 2010, in the final days of Gordon Brown's tenure as Prime Minister and prior to the change of government that resulted from the May 6th general election, and went into effect immediately after it was passed. In the last days before the dissolution, as a result, proposals for a reform of the wash-up were made in the House of Lords , but these were not implemented.

Modified by the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011

Until 2011, the Prime Minister had the right to propose to the monarch that parliament be dissolved and that new elections be held early. As a rule, this suggestion was complied with. This right of nomination allowed the government to schedule early elections at a point in time which it considered most promising. Wash-up was accordingly frequent. The last time new elections were announced without a subsequent wash-up phase was in the parliamentary elections in 1924. Parliament was dissolved with immediate effect on October 9, 1924, and new elections were held 20 days later. In fact, there was no wash-up before the 2001 parliamentary elections either, as parliament was dissolved just six days after the announcement of the new elections, which did not take place.

Since the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act 2011 came into force, the prime ministers' right to dissolve parliament and propose early elections has been severely restricted. The parliamentary term of office is now basically five years, with new elections on the 1st Thursday in May, beginning with the general election on May 7, 2015 . Although the House of Commons has the right to dissolve itself, the request must be accepted by two thirds of all members of the House of Commons (including unoccupied seats). There are also early elections if the lower house of the government expresses mistrust and confidence is not expressed in a new government within two weeks. Shortly before the 2015 elections, numerous MPs from both houses expressed the hope that the wash-up procedure would come to an end as part of this reform. William Wallace, Baron Wallace of Saltaire spoke in this context of a "terrible experience of the wash-up" ("dreadful experience of the wash-up").

However, that hope turned out to be false. On April 18, 2017, Prime Minister Theresa May announced that she would strive for a new election in the lower house in order to achieve an agreement in the lower house on the difficult Brexit negotiations. The vote in parliament clearly achieved the now necessary two-thirds majority (522 against 13 votes). Before the general election on June 8, 2017 , another two-week wash-up took place between the parliamentary vote on the new election on April 19, 2017 and the dissolution of parliament on May 2, 2017.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Research Services, House of Lords Library: Wash-up: What Happens to Bills before Parliament is Dissolved. (PDF (261.98 KB) for download) In: Researchbriefings, House of Lords. April 21, 2017. Retrieved May 16, 2019 .
  2. ^ Nicola Newson (House of Lords Library) and Richard Kelly (House of Commons Library): Wash-up 2010. (PDF (1.1 MB) for download) In: Library Notes, House of Lords. February 11, 2011, accessed May 16, 2019 .
  3. ^ Philip Norton, Baron Norton of Louth : Parliamentary wash-up. In: The Norton View. April 13, 2010, accessed May 18, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Parliament UK: Legislative Procedure of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010. In: Bills and legislation, Parliament.uk. April 12, 2010, accessed May 16, 2019 .
  5. ^ Nicola Newson (House of Lords Library) and Richard Kelly (House of Commons Library): Wash-up 2010. (PDF (1.1 MB) for download) In: Library Notes, House of Lords. February 11, 2011, pp. 8–9, 20–31 , accessed on May 16, 2019 .
  6. Jump up ↑ Peter Hennessy, Baron Hennessy of Nympsfield : The role and powers of the Prime Minister. February 21, 2011, accessed May 18, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Petra Schleiter: Why the Fixed-term Parliaments Act should not be repealed. In: The Oxford University Politics Blog. October 21, 2014, accessed May 18, 2019 .
  8. ^ Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 . ( gov.uk ).
  9. ↑ House of Lords: Minutes of the meeting, January 27, 2015, Column 103. In: Publications and Records, Parliament.uk. January 27, 2015, accessed May 18, 2019 .
  10. ↑ May announces new elections in Great Britain for June 8th. In: tagesschau.de . April 18, 2017. Retrieved April 18, 2017 .
  11. ↑ Catherine Haddon: Countdown to election 2017: What the timetable looks like. In: Institute for Government. April 19, 2017. Retrieved May 16, 2019 .