Lesson video

Hi, my name is Mrs. Harris, and I'm the person who's going to be guiding you through today's learning.

Today's lesson is called what is the difference between the Government and Parliament? And it's part of a larger series of lessons called how does the political system work in the UK? At the end of today's lesson, you're going to be able to say I can describe the key differences between the Government and Parliament and explain some of their key roles.

Some of this learning might be new to you and some of it might be challenging, but don't worry because I'm here and we're gonna do it all together.

Let's get going with it.

Let's start with our key words then.

I'm going to say the word and you're going to repeat it back to me.

Are you ready? Government.

Authority.

Parliament.

Our first learning cycle is called what is the Government? The word govern means to manage or control something.

When we think about governing a country, that means it's about making decisions about how that country is run and the laws and the rules for that country.

A government is the group of people who've been elected and given the authority to govern a country or a state.

That's the permission to be able to do that.

Governments will have ideas or policies which they want to put in place to improve life for people in society.

Aisha's there reminding us that policies are courses of actions or goals people plan to carry out or are in the process of carrying out.

And Jacob's reminding us that society means the people living in the ordered community.

A quick check for understanding then early on.

Fill in the missing word.

A government is the group of people who have been elected and given the to govern a country or state.

What is that missing word? Take a few seconds to think about it.

The missing word then.

A government is the group of people who've been elected and given the authority to govern a country or a state.

Well done if you've got that one.

Government is an important part of democracy and the United Kingdom is a representative democracy.

The word democracy comes from the Greek language, and demo comes from the Greek word demos and it means the people, and the cracy part of the word comes from the Greek word kratia, which means power or to rule.

So we've got people and power or people to rule, so therefore it means the rule of the people.

In a representative democracy like the UK, that means the country's leaders are elected by the citizens to work on their behalf, and that's in free and fair elections.

So you don't have to pay, you're not pressured to vote any particular way and it's done fairly.

The leaders that have then been elected, they've been chosen, they form a government, and that government is then accountable to the public.

All right, they're held responsible for their actions and they have to follow democratic principles like protecting individual rights, allowing freedom of speech, and making sure that everyone has a voice in how the country is run.

Let's have a quick check for understanding then.

So if this is the definition, what is the word? When the country's leaders are elected by the citizens in free and fair elections.

Is that authority, democracy or government? I'll give you a few seconds to think.

Okay, so when the country's leaders are elected by the citizens in free and fair elections, that is democracy.

Well done if you've got that.

Now, the UK Government is what we call the executive branch of the country, which means basically it's responsible for executing, for carrying out the day-to-day affairs of the country.

So it's responsible for, and it has the authority to do that.

Laura's is telling us that the Government makes sure that laws are followed and it handles things like healthcare, education, national security, and it also serves as the UK's representative in international matters.

So when countries meet up together to discuss world issues, it's the Government, the UK Government who represent the country as a whole.

Aisha is telling us that the Prime Minister or the PM is the head of the UK Government.

Now the Prime Minister is usually the leader, the head of the political party who has the most seats in the House of Commons.

That's part of our Parliament, which we'll come to later.

The Prime Minister is responsible for setting basically the overall direction of Government policies, and the Prime Minister is responsible for choosing the ministers, choosing the people who are going to lead the different Government departments, and that's called the Cabinet.

Now, the Cabinet is made up of ministers chosen by the Prime Minister.

All right, so they're heads of all the Government departments like health, security, education, and it's responsible for making really important decisions for the whole of the UK, and then creating the policies and the plans for not just now, but for the future of the country as well.

And the Cabinet meets at least weekly in a place called Whitehall in London, and that's what's pictured on your screen.

And when they're in Whitehall, the Cabinet meets in the Cabinet room.

Some Cabinet members are called Secretaries of State.

So for example, you've got the Secretary of State for Health, and the Secretary of the State for Education.

And other important roles include the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

That's the person who manages all the country's money, the finances.

And you've got the Home Secretary who oversees things like immigration and security.

And the Cabinet is supported by civil servants and they help to implement the policies and manages the services for the day-to-day running of the country.

So now, can you order these different parts of Government according to their seniority? So start with the most senior and put them into the order that you would find them within the Government.

I'll give you a few seconds to think.

Okay then, so the most senior is the Prime Minister, then we have the Cabinet, and they are supported by civil servants.

Well done.

You're onto your first task then.

So this one is a fill the gaps task.

So you're going to put in the correct words into the correct spaces to complete this paragraph, and you're going to use the words from the word bank to help you.

So the words in there are policies, democracy, minister, Government, Cabinet, executive, and elections.

I'll read the paragraph to you and leave spaces for those gaps.

Mm is a group of people chosen to govern a country.

In the UK, it is a representative mm, where leaders are chosen through free and fair mm.

A government is the mm branch responsible for running the country's day-to-day affairs.

It makes sure laws are followed and handles services like healthcare and education.

The Prime mm is the head of the UK Government and chooses ministers to be on the mm.

Civil servants support with implementing mm and managing services.

Pause the video here to give yourself the time to do the task, and then we'll go through the answers together.

Let's go through these answers together then.

Your answer should have looked like this.

A government is a group of people chosen to govern a country.

In the UK, it is a representative democracy where leaders are chosen through free and fair elections.

A government is the executive branch responsible for running the country's day-to-day affairs.

It makes sure laws are followed and handles services like healthcare and education.

The Prime Minister is the head of the UK Government and chooses ministers to be on the Cabinet.

Civil servant support with implementing policies and managing services.

Really well done if you've got all of those answers correct.

Time for our second learning cycle now called what is Parliament? Now just how we've said that the Government is the executive branch of the UK state, Parliament is the legislative branch of the UK state, which means that has the authority to make and change laws, and it meets in the Palace of Westminster here on your screen, which is in London.

Parliament is made up of three parts.

We have the House of Commons, which is known as the lower house of Parliament.

We have the House of Lords, known as the upper house of Parliament.

And we have the monarchy, which is the king or the queen of the UK.

So true or false, then the House of Commons is the upper house of Parliament, true or false? Take a few seconds to think.

Okay, the answer to that is false, but why is it false? Take a few seconds.

Why is it false? Well, that's because the House of Commons is the lower house.

It's the House of Lords which is the upper house, and the third part of Parliament is the monarch.

Great job.

All right, let's talk about the House of Commons then.

Here it is on your screen.

The House of Commons is made up of 650 members of Parliament, and they're known as MPs, who are voted in by citizens of the UK.

MPs are there to represent the people from different areas of the UK within Parliament itself.

And then these MPs help make laws and they make other important decisions by discussing and debating and voting on local, national and sometimes international issues as well.

On one side of the House is for those in government, and then the other side of it is for the opposition and the smaller parties as well.

Debates and votes take place here in Parliament, and the Prime Minister attends every week for something called Prime Minister's Questions, which is where anybody within that House can ask the Prime Minister direct questions to get answers to things that they would like to know.

And the person who leads all these events in the House of Commons, they're called the Speaker, and sometimes they have to act as a little bit of a referee between debates to try and keep the peace, keep things ordered and keep things moving along.

The House of Lords then.

Now, the House of Lords is made up of Lords, Ladies and Peers.

And now these people have been chosen rather than elected by citizens in the way that MPs are.

And there are different ways to be chosen.

It might be a hereditary title, so that means it's passed down through family.

So if a parent has been a lord, lady or a peer, that could then pass to the child.

They might have been appointed, so that's been specifically chosen for skills or expertise in a particular area.

Or it might be through honours, so that person has made a really exceptional contribution to society and as a result of that, they've been chosen to sit in the House of Lords.

The House of Lords' job is to examine and to suggest changes to laws that have been passed on to them by the House of Commons.

So the House of Commons look at laws first and then it passes to the House of Lords, and their job is then to offer their expertise and their knowledge and then discuss and debate everything about that law before it then is finalised.

The person who leads events here is called the Leader of the Lords, and their job is very similar to that of the Speaker in the House of Commons.

And now let's move to our third part of Parliament, the monarchy.

Now the monarch, the king or the queen of the country used to have full authority how to run the country and they got the final say on laws and how they were put into place.

Now though this has changed and now the UK is now what we call a constitutional monarchy, which basically means that, yes, we still have a king or a queen and they're still head of state, but the authority to make and to pass laws, to put that legislation in place, that lies with Parliament, which has been elected by the citizens.

Despite this though, the monarchy still has got some really important roles and they are symbolic, they're quite important, and lots of people will be familiar with what the king or the queen does at certain points of the year.

One of these things is granting Royal Assent, that's approval to all laws.

They open and close Parliament every year.

And they appoint the Prime Minister after an election has happened.

The monarch has to remain politically neutral, which basically means they can't talk publicly about what their own personal political beliefs are, and this is so that they are seen to be supporting Government and supporting Parliament at all times.

So which part of Parliament does this picture represent? Have a look at it.

Which part of Parliament does it represent? Is it the House of Commons, House of Lords or the monarch? I'll give you a few seconds to think.

So this picture represents the House of Commons.

Yes, it does.

Really well done if you got that.

Let's move on to Parliament's responsibilities then.

Now, one of them is to debate and pass laws, and Jacob here is telling us that laws are usually proposed by the UK Government, so that's the Cabinet and the Prime Minister, but they have to have approval from both the Houses of Parliament, so that's the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

Another responsibility of Parliament is to scrutinise the Government.

Now, this is about checking up very closely on what the Government is doing, and Parliament will check that the Government's doing its job properly by doing things like asking questions, holding debates, and sometimes even putting proper official investigations into the Government's actions.

And there are things called Parliamentary committees and they are groups that are charged with looking at very specific issues, maybe the economy or maybe public services, to see actually how well they're being run and how well they are working and serving the UK public.

All of the responsibilities of Parliament can pretty much be summed up with this one here on the screen alone, which is them representing the citizens of the UK.

So on the previous screen, we talked about scrutinising the Government.

They do that in order to make sure that it's running the best that it can for the citizens of the UK.

And it debates and passes laws for the good and for the best interests of citizens of the UK, and that is what the job is.

So Laura's reminding us here that our members of Parliament, our MPs, they are elected to represent the views and concerns of the people who live in their area.

And Parliament is that way of providing a chance for voices to be heard, for the public's voices to be heard in the way that when they debate issues and they discuss policies, and then they pass laws that reflect the needs of the people in the public.

So all this means that if Parliament is doing its job properly, then the citizens of the UK will feel like their voices are being heard, and that their interests are really being represented in Parliament itself.

Check for understanding then.

So Parliamentary committees, looking closely at specific areas, is an example of, is it representing UK citizen views? Is it an example of debating and passing laws? Or is an example of scrutinising the Government? Take a few seconds to think and we'll come together.

Okay, Parliamentary committees looking closely at specific areas is an example of scrutinising the Government.

Yes, because that is a group of people charged very specifically in investigating a particular area like healthcare or public services, for example.

Well done if you got that.

Some more of Parliament's responsibilities then are about approving government spending.

So this means that Parliament has the responsibility of actually approving the Government's budget and how the public money is spent.

Parliament also decides on taxation, so that's taxes, and that's the money that people and businesses pay to the Government to fund public services like healthcare and like education as well.

This then links back to the scrutiny side of things where Parliament will scrutinise how that Government money is being spent.

So it's all very linked together, isn't it? Another of Parliament's responsibilities is that it's a place for debates and discussions.

So Parliament is the place then where the issues that the country is facing or citizens are facing are openly discussed.

So you have the MPs, the Lords, the Ladies and the Peers having these discussions about how to solve issues, how to put things in place, and it's a really good place of making sure that different views are heard openly and publicly.

And you'll often find that so many of these debates and discussions are actually televised so that the public themselves can see into the House of Commons or the House of Lords and what is being said.

Another quick check for understanding then.

So Parliament also decides on, hmm, what's this missing word? This is money that people and businesses pay to the Government to help fund public services like healthcare and education.

What is that missing word? Parliament also decides on.

Take a few seconds to think.

Okay, Parliament also decides on taxation.

Yes, that's the taxes, isn't it? That people and businesses pay to the Government.

Really well done.

We're onto task B.

This is a tick box exercise where you are going to tick the box to show if you think the statement is true or false.

If the statement is false, you are going to rewrite it to make it true.

All right? So the first one is: Parliament is the executive branch of the UK Government.

The second one is: The Speaker leads debates in the House of Commons.

The third one is: The monarch has the authority to make and pass laws in the UK.

The next one is: Lords, Ladies And Peers are elected to represent the views of people in their area.

And the final one is: Parliament is responsible for approving the Government's budget and how public money is spent.

You're going to tick the boxes to say if they're true or false, and if it is false, you're going to rewrite it to make it true.

Pause the video to give yourself the time to do that, and then we'll come back together and go through the answers.

Okay, let's go through these answers.

So your answers should have looked like this.

Parliament is the executive branch of the UK Government.

That is false.

The Speaker leads debates in the House of Commons.

True.

The monarch has the authority to make and pass laws in the UK.

False.

Lords, Ladies and Peers are elected to represent the views of the people.

That is false.

And the final one, Parliament is responsible for approving the Government's budget and how public money is spent.

That's true.

Well done if you got those five.

So we've got three there that are false, and remember part B of it was to rewrite the statements to make them true.

So your answers might have looked something like this.

So the first one then, Parliament is the executive branch of the UK Government.

Well, that's incorrect.

So rewritten below I've put that Parliament is the legislative branch of the UK state government, which means it can make and approve laws.

Good job.

The monarch has the authority to make and pass laws in the UK.

That is false.

The monarch does not have the authority to make and pass laws, but they do carry out some symbolic roles, such as granting Royal Ascent to new laws.

That means giving their approval to them.

And the final one: Lords, Ladies and Peers are elected to represent the views of the people.

That's not true, is it? They're there to represent the people.

They're not elected, they're actually appointed.

They're chosen specifically.

Well done if you've got all of those ones.

Fantastic job.

It's time for our third learning cycle now, which is, how can we compare the Government and Parliament? So let's start by comparing them, the key roles.

So the Government is the executive branch.

It directly governs the country.

It discusses, makes and implements decisions and policies and it proposes laws.

Now in contrast to that then, we've got Parliament, that's the legislative branch.

It scrutinises the Government, and it represents the interests of the public.

And it's the Parliament that debates and pass the laws, whereas remember the Government proposes the laws, but Parliament has to debate and pass them.

The second comparison then, who is the Government and Parliament accountable to? Well, the Government is accountable to Parliament, isn't it? Because it's Parliament who check up on them, who scrutinise what they do.

It has to explain and justify their policies and actions to members of Parliament, and the Lords and the Ladies and the Peers as well.

Parliament, however, is accountable to the public, and one way that that is done is through elections.

So if the public are not happy with how Parliament are working, then they can just vote for new MPs next time round, and Parliament are also accountable to the law itself.

So whilst they will pass and they will make the laws, they also have to follow it themselves as well.

The next comparison then is who is the leader? In Government, it's the Prime Minister, isn't it? Yeah, and that's usually the leader of the party that has the majority of seats in the House of Commons.

For Parliament, the leader is in the House of Commons, that's the Speaker is sort of in charge of how things run in there.

And in the House of Lords, it's the Leader of the Lords, again in charge of how things are running, keeping things on track and making sure that everybody is listening and being respectful within the houses themselves.

Can you fill in these missing words then? So Parliament is the mm branch which approves and passes laws, whereas the Government is the mm branch which implements policies and laws.

Can you fill in those gaps there? I'll give you some seconds to think about it.

All right then.

So Parliament is the legislative branch which approves and passes laws, whereas the Government is the executive branch which implements those policies and laws.

Well done.

Compare the people in Government and Parliament then.

So in the Government, you have your appointed ministers, so they're the ones that are chosen by the Prime Minister on the Cabinet, and you also have the civil servants who work in the government departments.

That's actual employees who are interviewed and given those positions based on their skills.

In Parliament, however, you have the elected members of Parliament, they're the people in the House of Commons, and you also have the appointed members who are in the House of Lords, so your Lords, your Ladies and your Peers.

The ministers who've been chosen by the Prime Minister to sit on the Cabinet are MPs as well.

They sit in Parliament as well, and they will nearly always be in the same party as the Prime Minister themselves, in the same political party.

Who makes the decisions in Government and Parliament? What are the differences there? Well, in the Government, those decisions are made by the Prime Minister and the Cabinets, and it's the civil servants that then implement those decisions.

They carry out those decisions made by the Cabinet and the Prime Minister.

In Parliament, they work together to debate and vote on the proposed laws and the policies, and they also work to hold the Government to account through their questioning and through their committees as well.

True or false then, the Cabinet is elected into position by the public.

I'll give you some seconds to think about whether that is true or false.

Okay, so the Cabinet is elected into position by the public.

True or false? That is false.

Why is it false? A few more seconds to think.

Okay, so the Cabinet is elected into position by the public.

No, that's false.

And it's false because the Cabinet is handpicked by the Prime Minister themselves.

Now, they're usually the members of Parliament.

Obviously, members of Parliament have been elected by the public.

But it's not the public who put them onto the Cabinet itself.

So they have to be MPs to be on it, but it's the Prime Minister who then picks out which MPs they want to be on their Cabinet.

It's time for task C then.

So task C is going to be writing two paragraphs explaining the differences between Government and Parliament.

Now, I've included a word bank below here.

All right, you've got plenty of words there to be able to help you do this.

You don't have to use all of the words.

They're definitely there to help you structure your paragraphs and how you're going to write and explain those differences between the Government and Parliament.

It's now a good idea to pause the video to give yourself the time to do that, and then we'll come back and look at some answers together.

All right, well done on that.

Let's have a look then.

So your answer might have looked something like this.

Parliament and the Government work together, but they have distinct roles.

Parliament represents the public's interest and is responsible for making laws, debating policies, and holding the Government to account.

It's made up of elected MPs in the House of Commons, the monarch, and appointed Lords, Ladies and Peers in the House of Lords.

The Government is responsible for running the country, implementing policies and managing public services.

It is led by the Prime Minister who chooses a leaders to be on the Cabinet.

The Cabinet leads the civil servants.

The Government can then propose laws, policies, and changes to taxes, but it's Parliament who needs to approve them.

The Government is accountable to Parliament, which can challenge the Government and hold it accountable for its actions.

Did yours read something like that? I wonder how many of the key points that we both got together.

Really good on that.

The second part of this task then is to decide if these statements below apply to either Government or Parliament, and you're going to place them under the correct heading.

So the six statements we have here are: represents the views and concerns of the public, represents the country in foreign affairs, runs the day-to-day affairs of the country, holds the other body accountable through debates and questions, manages public services like healthcare and education, and approves and passes laws.

So each of those is either the responsibility or a role of the Government or Parliament, so place them under the correct heading.

Again, it's a good idea to pause the video to give yourself the time to do this, and then we'll go through the answers together.

All right then, let's go through the answers together.

So under the Government one then, your answers should have been: runs the day-to-day affairs of the country, manages public services like healthcare and education, and represents the country in foreign affairs.

So speaking with other countries about different national or international issues.

Under Parliament, you should have had: represents the views and concerns of the public, holds the other body, Government, holds the Government accountable through debates and questions, and finally approves and passes laws.

Did you get all of those six? I hope you were successful in that task.

Well done.

Let's summarise our learning for today then.

What is the difference between the Government and Parliament? A Government is the group of people who've been elected and given the authority to govern a country or state.

The Government is the executive branch and it runs the country's day-to-day affairs, like public services and national security.

Government is led by the Prime Minister who chooses a Cabinet to make decisions over how the country is run.

Parliament is the legislative branch made up of the House of Commons, House of Lords, and the monarch.

In the House of Commons, the MPs are elected by the public, and those in the House of Lords are appointed.

Parliament's main roles are to represent the public and to scrutinise the Government.

It also debates and passes laws, which the Government then implements.

Really, really well done on your learning today.

You have done a fantastic job taking all of that knowledge and learning the differences between Government and Parliament.

I really hope I'll see you again soon.