Welfare Reform & the Financial Privilege

On 1 February 2012, a committee of the House of Commons resolved that the Welfare Reform Bill, which proposes to cap benefits for most families at £26,000 a year, engages the financial privilege of the Commons.  Under such a privilege, the Commons is entitled to 'disagree' with any Lords amendment and ultimately reject it without feeling obliged to provide any reasons other than the existence of the privilege.  By convention, the Lords will accept this determination (though increasingly with protest). I argue below that it would be a mistake to read the financial privilege so broadly, and also that the Lords have both the constitutional power, and good cause, to assert themselves in reply.

Read the full article (pdf)

Addendum clarifying and modifying Welfare Reform and the Financial Privilege (14/02/2012)
 

Further Information

• Post on the Constitutional Law Group Blog
• Article in the Huffington Post
• See our research project on the Impact of Parliament on Legislation
• Our research on the House of Lords, including data on government defeats in the Lords