Lesson video

Hello, how are you doing? I'm Mrs. Tomassi and I'm gonna be working through a review on your citizenship lesson today.

As long as you're all good to go and you've got everything, we can make a start.

Today's lesson title is "Why do we have a separation of powers in the UK?" and it forms part of the unit which is, "What is the nature of the British Constitution?" The outcome for the session today is that by the end you'll be able to describe the different branches of government and analyse why they might have a separation of powers.

So to make a start, we're just gonna have a look at the three keywords for the session today.

So to start with here you've got the legislative, and that is the lawmaking body of the state, i.

e.

Parliament in the UK.

You've got the executive, which is the branch of government that is responsible for putting laws or decisions into effect.

And then you have the judiciary, the branch of state that is responsible for enforcing the law.

It's composed of judges and other legal officials.

You'll see these key terms throughout the lesson and they'll be in bold, so if you ever need to refer back to them, you've got them here.

We begin with our first of the three lesson outlines today, which is, where is power held in our Constitution? So a little bit at the start, what is power? Any ideas, what do you think of when you think of the word power? So in this context, power is about having control or authority over something or someone.

And in terms of our Constitution, what is the Constitution? So the constitution is a set of principles and rules by which a country is organised.

There are two types, which is codified, and that's written down in a single document, compared to uncodified where they're not written down in a single document.

So that kind of gives you a bit of a start with thinking about, where is this power, so where is this control on the authority held? In the UK's Constitution, which the UK has an uncodified constitution.

So in the UK Constitution, power is held in six key areas that have the biggest kind of influence over how the country is governed, and they each hold a different amount of power.

Now, before we kind of go through them, can you think of any areas where power is held in this country? If you're thinking maybe kind of linking to the key terms and the mentioning of Parliament there, so we have the House of Commons, the House of Lords, the monarchy.

We then also have the courts, the government, and the prime minister.

So these are the six areas that we are gonna look at in this learning cycle.

Before we move on to them, a check for understanding.

So which area of power and influence within the British Constitution is not included on the list? We've got government, prime minister, House of Lords, monarchy and the courts.

It is the House of Commons that is missing from the list there, and it is the House of Commons that we are gonna start with now.

So the House of Commons is part of the legislative branch of state 'cause that's part of Parliament, and the House of Commons has direct access to the government.

It's responsible for approving and creating laws and taxes and it holds the government to account for its actions.

The government obviously sits in the House of Commons and you also have the opposition who sit at the other side and they are responsible for scrutinising the government's actions.

So the majority party in the Commons forms the government and they put most of the new bills forward.

The House of Commons obviously then go back and forth with the House of Lords.

Now it's important to recognise here that actually the House of Commons can recognise a bill to become a law even if the House of Lords don't agree, and we will look into that now.

So Sofia says here, "Why can the House of Commons force a bill to become a law without the Lords?" Since the 1911 Parliament Act, the House of Lords no longer has the power to permanently block bills.

It used to, but prior to that, but now it can only delay them for up to a year, after which the House of Commons can pass the bill without the Lords' consent.

So, I mean, a year is a very long time, so actually they can still delay, but if the House of Commons really want to get that bill through, they can continue to do that after that time.

Next one we've got here, the government.

We kind of briefly spoke about them when we were saying that they sit in the House of Commons.

Now the aim of the government in terms of where their power is hold is that they have the authority to govern the country.

They usually get formed by the political party that wins the most seats in the election, and they're also known as the executive branch.

So we've looked at the legislative, which is Parliament.

Now the government specifically is the executive branch.

They are responsible for running the country and they are led by the prime minister.

The responsibilities that they have is to, include setting taxes, deciding how to allocate public spending, and determining how to deliver public services, so things like education, et cetera.

A check for understanding now, so who leads the government? Is it A, the monarch; B, the prime minister; or C, the Lords? It is B, it's the prime minister.

Now the prime minister is our next one to look at in terms of where power is held in our constitution.

So the prime minister is the leader of the political party in power and head of government, usually anyway.

Now they can decide on new policies and have significant influence over government decisions, and they appoint the Cabinet.

So the Cabinet is the group of MPs who head the departments.

So for example, you might have the Department for Education, Department for Transport, and the prime minister will appoint and pick members of Parliament to lead those different areas.

The Cabinet then meet regularly and they discuss and make decisions on how the government policy will be implemented.

The prime minister also oversees the Civil Service, which is the administrative arm of government.

Can you match the term to their role? So we've got government, House of Commons, and prime minister.

Did you manage to get that? So you've got the government there, which is the executive, then the House of Commons is part of the legislative branch, and the prime minister chooses the Cabinet.

We move onto the monarchy here.

Do you remember what branch the monarchy is part of? So the monarchy is part of the legislative branch because it's part of Parliament.

So it's the third part of Parliament.

And the power that the monarchy holds is more ceremonial now.

So for example here, the monarch's assent is required for all bills passed in Parliament before they become law, and that's the royal assent.

So the monarch actually isn't involved in the creation of the bill or the scrutiny of the bill, but the monarch is required to sign off before it can become a law.

So it's that final kind of process.

Now the monarch could technically actually refuse to sign and refuse assent.

However, this hasn't happened in modern history.

That's something to kind of think about in terms of the power the monarchy has there.

The monarch does meet with the prime minister regularly and discuss Parliamentary business and can express their views.

The monarch formally appoints the prime minister but is politically neutral.

We've got the House of Lords that we mentioned earlier.

And again, do you remember what branch they're part of? That's that legislative branch.

So I'm trying to keep making sure that you remember the difference between legislative, executive, and judiciary and the different branches that they're of.

So again, the House of Lords we're saying is part of the legislative branch and they're independent from the House of Commons, but they do share responsibility for making and shaping laws.

Obviously we said earlier, they can delay a bill for up to a year.

After that time, the House of Commons can still put it through.

The House submits around 6,000 written questions to government annually about its policies, and what this is is part of their scrutinising process.

So maybe they want to find out a bit more information or they want a bit more clarity before they say, "Okay, actually yeah, this bill should go through." Or maybe they decide actually, you know, maybe it shouldn't be, and they might wanna offer some alternatives, et cetera.

So obviously, 6,000 gives you a bit of an idea of the amount of scrutinising that the House of Lords is doing.

And then they have select committees, so specific areas that conduct in-depth inquiries into the government decisions.

Now these might be on specific topics, you know, such as education, et cetera, and they want to look at a specific area in more detail.

True or false? The courts can delay a bill from being passed for up to a year.

That is false.

Why is that false? Because it's the House of Lords that can delay a bill from being passed for up to a year, not the courts.

We will move on to the courts now, though.

Now the courts, we've looked at the legislative, we've looked at executive, the courts form part of the judiciary branch and they are there to interpret the laws made by Parliament.

They don't make the laws themselves, they are there to interpret.

So the Constitutional Reform Act of 2005 recognised the courts as fully independent from the government, because prior to that they weren't.

Now the monarch cannot remove judges from office if their rulings are unfavourable, and that was established by the Act of Settlement in 1701.

You then have the Supreme Court which has the power to decide if a law goes against human rights.

They can't necessarily change or overturn laws made by Parliament, but again, they can scrutinise and they can question there.

So who interprets the law in the UK? Is it A, the House of Commons; B, the monarch; or C, the courts? It is C, the courts.

That brings us onto the first task for today, and here can you complete the table by explaining key areas of power in the UK and describing their main roles or responsibilities? There you've got the key areas and you've got the first one there given to you.

So the main role of the government, they are responsible for running the country, making policy decisions and setting taxes.

See if you can work out the rest and then unpause and we can go through the answers together.

How did you get on with that? Did you manage to remember the different areas of power and their responsibility? If you did, you might have included the prime minister being the leader of the government and appointing the Cabinet ministers.

Also they have that job of overseeing the Civil Service.

Then you've got the House of Commons that debates and votes on proposed laws, changes to taxes, and holds the government to account.

You've also got the House of Lords can review and suggest amendments, so that idea of the scrutinising the legislation proposed by the House of Commons.

The monarch with their ceremonial duties such as opening Parliament, and formally approving laws, such as the royal assent.

And courts which interpret the laws, so they ensure they're applied fairly and check that the government's actions are lawful.

Now that brings us to the end of that learning cycle there, looking at where the power is held in the Constitution.

Now we're gonna move on to, how is power separated in our Constitution? Now you might have heard me starting to talk about some of them terms earlier as a little bit of a hint.

So we've got Alex here saying, "How is power separated in our Constitution?" If I give you a little bit of a clue, there are three branches, if you can remember what they are.

So we've got the legislative, the executive, and the judiciary.

Now the reason that they're separated is to prevent any one person or group from holding all the power.

So we've got these different peoples with power.

If one group had it all, then maybe it wouldn't be so democratic and it wouldn't be so fair.

So the idea is that it's divided between them to prevent anyone having too much.

By offering a separation of powers, it means that there is scrutiny.

Again, a word that I've been using when we've looked at the House of Lords but again we'll go into this in more detail.

Accountability, and checks and balance.

Now we're gonna go through them three terms there and we're gonna have a look at them in more detail.

So if we start with the legislative, we've got Parliament.

Parliament's made up of three parts which are House of Commons, House of Lords, and the monarch.

Hopefully you've got them three now and you're really sure about how Parliament is made up.

The House of Commons is the one that holds more legislative power.

So even amongst the three here, they have different levels of power.

If you remember what we said about the monarch, the monarch's role is ceremonial, so actually the monarch doesn't have as much legislative power.

Again, the House of Lords is more about the revising, they're there to scrutinise, to try and change what's going on, rather than make the final decisions.

That tends to line more with the House of Commons.

As we said, the monarch.

Here you've got Kings Charles III during the State Opening of Parliament.

And when we're talking about the monarch, we're saying their role is ceremonial.

Do you know what they do at the State Opening of Parliament? So they're there to read the monarch's speech and then they obviously formally approve the legislation through royal assent.

True or false? The legislative power is made up of two parts.

That is false, how many parts is it made of? It's made up of three parts, which is House of Commons, House of Lords, and the monarch.

Fingers crossed that is starting to kind of go in now.

So if we move on from the legislative to the executive branch, which is the government.

Now the government is the group of people with the authority to run and manage the country.

Again, we mentioned this earlier, but it's formed by the party that gains the most seats in the House of Commons at general election.

They're responsible for running the country, developing and implementing policy.

Who leads the government? It is the prime minister.

Did you manage to remember that one? And they are accountable to Parliament and electorates for their actions.

That's the executive side, now we're gonna move on to the final side.

So we've had legislative, we've got executive, the final one is the judiciary.

So that's the courts.

Now they administer justice and interpret the law.

Yeah, they're not making the law, they're there to interpret it.

And they are made up of judges, those who hold judicial offices in tribunals, magistrates.

We are now gonna look at how each of them scrutinise and hold accountability to each other.

They are all linked together, and this is how.

So if we start with the executive, so that's that government, to the legislative, which is Parliament.

So we've got the prime minister and the government, they form the executive branch, and they are scrutinised and held accountable to Parliament.

So if you think you've got the House of Commons there, the opposition will hold them accountable, question them, then they'll go back to the House of Lords who will question again.

We're now going to the legislative branch.

Now they can be held accountable by the judiciary because we've got the courts that interpret and apply the laws that Parliament creates.

Sometimes, if laws are applied controversially, it can lead to a revision of legislation, so that's again showing how the judiciary can then hold the legislative, which is the Parliament branch, to account.

And then finally, if we go to the judiciary, they're gonna hold the executive to account because the judges in the courts can review the government's decisions through something called a judicial review, and that will be where they might look at the actions.

Quick check for understanding there 'cause that was a lot of information.

So which branch of power is scrutinised and held accountable by Parliament? That is the executive, they're held account by Parliament, and that's through the House of Commons and the House of Lords questioning what they are doing.

We are gonna move on to the second task now, so create a Venn diagram.

If you're not sure what a Venn diagram is, you've got the image there, so the three circles and they're overlapping.

Like to label each one to represent one of the branches of power in the UK.

In each circle, write the key functions of that branch.

And in the areas where the circle overlaps, so the parts in the middle, there provide an example of how the branches work together.

Take some time now.

If you pause and then see if you can work out each of them branches, their functions, and how they work together and overlap, and then we will go through.

Now there's a lot there, so how did you get on with that? How did you find that? Did you manage to work out the three branches, so the executive, the legislative, and judiciary? And did you manage to work out something like this? So we've got the functions there, so the executive being to implement and enforce law, the judiciary is about interpreting law, and the legislative is about making and changing laws.

And then we've got the overlaps.

So we've got the executive overlaps with the judiciary through judges reviewing government's decisions.

The judiciary overlaps with the legislative 'cause Parliament creates laws that the court interprets.

And the executive overlaps with the legislative because the prime minister is part of Parliament but leads the government.

Now you might have had other things there, maybe you might have had how government is scrutinised by the legislative, and vice versa for some other reasons, as long as you've noticed some form of overlap.

Now they all actually overlap with each other because they all hold power in the UK.

Now we will move on to the final outline, and this is, why is power separated in our Constitution? So now we've seen where the power's held, how it's held, but why is it separated? So we touched upon this briefly, but we're saying that it's separated so that there's not too much power.

Now the reason for that is it could lead to corruption and it's not as democratic because it's not allowing all these different voices to be heard.

By spreading out the power, it means each branch can oversee and check the actions of the others.

We mentioned the words scrutiny and accountability, checks and balance earlier.

So these are systems that make sure no single branch has too much power.

Now they can do this by limiting, delaying, or challenging decisions while also ensuring that different views and interests are taken into account in the democratic process.

If we start with accountability, so accountability is about being responsible for actions and decisions and having to explain or justify them to others, including people in positions of power.

Now how that works in terms of power separated to make sure there's accountability is take the judiciary.

Now they hold the legislative, so Parliament, accountable by interpreting and applying the laws fairly.

They aren't there to comment on the laws, they are just there to ensure that they apply them fairly across the UK.

Now the courts can review the actions through the judicial review.

Now the judicial review is not about saying whether the decision was right or wrong, but it's looking at the process and making sure that the right process has been followed and it has been applied fairly.

You then have the legislative holding the executive, which is the government, accountable by making laws and then checking the actions of the government.

Check for understanding there.

Checks and balances allows for protection of rights, scrutiny.

What is missing from this list? Accountability is missing from this list, holding everyone accountable for their actions.

So we can move on to protection of rights now.

Now the reason power is separated, because it prevents an abuse of power that could impact individuals' rights.

As an example, the executive branch do this by implementing laws to protect individual freedom.

The legislative branch does this through, we've got the Human Rights Act of 1998, and they are bound to ensure that laws comply with it.

So within that they are constantly thinking about protecting rights.

And if they don't do that and they don't abide by the Human Rights Act, then the judiciary can strike down the law or ask them to reconsider.

So again, you've got that idea that they are all interconnected and they are all still scrutinising each other.

Which moves on to scrutiny, which is this word that keeps coming up through this session, so it's a detailed examination of an issue.

Executive, legislative, and judiciary branches are all scrutinised to ensure there is a check and balance.

How the executive branch is scrutinised? We've mentioned some of this, you might be a bit familiar with it now.

Can you think of any ways? So an example by the legislative, we've mentioned that going back and forth with the House of Commons, but specifically you've got Prime Minister's Question Time where members of Parliament can ask the prime minister questions, they can question and they can check and find out more information about what's going on.

The select committees, again, we mentioned them earlier.

So you've got the specific committees based off specific departments and areas, and they will question and find out more about what's going on.

And just in general there's debates and there's constant debating and going back and forth, and again the option for everybody to vote as well.

So that's not just government, you've got the whole of the House of Commons there able to vote on proposed bills.

Then we've got the legislative branch.

Can you remember? So that's Parliament.

Hopefully these words are all going in now.

And the legislative branch is scrutinised by the judicial review where the courts can rule if it is passed and if it violate the Constitution or not.

And then we've got the judiciary branch and they are scrutinised by the legislative who can make changes to laws if they don't agree with the court's rulings.

So that's saying that, you know, if the they don't agree with how the court is dealing with it, then they can ensure that their laws coming through can support that.

So it's going back again that they are all connected and there is a cycle following them round.

And of course we can't forget the citizens.

Now the citizens also hold each branch accountable.

They get to vote in elections or join public campaigns to challenge laws.

So, actually, you as a citizen, as an electorate are able to ensure that they're held accountable, because if not, when it comes to the next general election, the likelihood is the executive might change, and again, the legislative branch, the members of Parliament can change.

And even before you are able to vote, people can join in public campaigns again to challenge laws if they are not agreed with.

So you've got the citizens there who can scrutinise and get involved as well.

A check for understanding now.

Which branch is scrutinised through Prime Minister's Question Time? It is the executive, the executive being the government.

So our final task for today.

You've got Jacob, "All the branches of power check and balance each other." Laura says, "Yes, this means they can be held accountable, protect rights and scrutinise each other." Can you create a cycle to show how each branch of power checks and balances each other? Now by a cycle we're saying, you know, showing how each one links to the other.

Once you have done that, if you unpause and then we can go through and see what you came up with.

How did you find that? Now you might have a more creative cycle than this one.

This is just a nice simple circle that goes round, but the idea is we're showing how each one links to the next.

So it could look like this.

So you've got the executive is held accountable through elections and scrutiny from the legislative.

That leads to the judiciary is scrutinised by the legislative who can make changes to the law if they don't agree with court rulings.

And then the legislative is held accountable to the judiciary through interpreting laws impartially.

That brings us onto the summary of this session.

Hopefully now you've got an idea of the three different branches, which are the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary branches.

And the reason that they are separated is to ensure there are checks and balances for accountability, protection of rights and scrutiny.

They can all be held accountable to each other.

So the executive branch is held accountable from the judiciary branch through court reviews.

The judiciary is scrutinised by the legislative as they can make changes to the law.

And the legislative ensures laws protect individual rights.

There are lots of key terms and probably new vocabulary in that session.

Hopefully you have managed to grasp some of these concepts and show how power is separated.

I hope that you found it beneficial and it's a good starting point looking at the separation of power in the UK.

Have a brilliant rest of your day and maybe see you again another time.