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House of Assembly
The House of Assembly is the lower legislative house, which along with the Monarch and the Witanmoot, constitutes the Parliament of New England. Established by the Constitution of New England in 2012, the House is a democratically elected body (usually) consisting of 99 members, who are known as Members of the House of Assembly or MHAs.
Members are elected by the Mixed Member Preferential Proportional Representation system of election for limited terms, holding office until Parliament is dissolved (a maximum of four years). Two-thirds of members are elected from electoral districts known as constituencies. The remaining third are elected from a list determined by each of the various political parties before the election is called. The House of Assembly is the source of all voting members of the Executive Council and the First Minister.
Functions & Powers
The principal function of the House of Assembly is to pass legislation. Any Member of the House may introduce a bill before the House, but in practice the majority of bills are introduced by government ministers. Bills introduced by other Members are called private members' bills, and owing to the large number of opposition members, this means that parliament must set aside about a third of debating time to these bills. All bills must be passed by the House of Assembly become law upon the assent of the monarch.
The House also performs other functions besides legislation. It can discuss urgency motions or matters of public importance, providing a forum for debates on public policy matters. Members can move motions of censure against the government or against individual ministers. On alternate sitting days there is a session called Questions Without Notice at which members address questions to ministers. On the other two days, members may pose questions only to the First Minister. Members can also present petitions from their constituents. The House has an extensive system of committees in which draft bills are debated, evidence is taken and public servants are questioned.
Membership
For a list of members, see Members of the House of Assembly.
| State of the House of Assembly | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Leader | MPs | |
| SDLP | Matthew Jones | 40 | |
| National | Kristine Dawkins | 35 | |
| Alliance | Scott Rogers | 24 | |
| RfR | Simon Ascot | 1 | |
| Independents | 3 | ||
The House of Assembly usually consists of 67 members elected from single-member constituencies of approximately equal population and 32 members elected from party lists. Owing to an allowance for extra MHAs in the Elections Act, the current parliament has 103 members. Over time, the House of Assembly has been increased in size to deal with population growth and relocation. Additionally, the quota of electors per seat has also increased to moderate the number of seats in the House of Assembly. The House is presided over by the Speaker of the House, currently Helen Carter-Jones.
Most members belong to political parties, and the party with the largest number of seats has the right to form a government. Not all governments have an absolute majority, and the current SDLP government, elected in the recent general election, controls 40 of the 103 seats in the House of Assembly. Matters of supply and confidence must be guaranteed by a majority of MHA's before the King can appoint a government. In the case of the current government, this condition has been met by support from the New England Alliance.
Leadership
Officers
Speaker of the House of Assembly - The chairman of the House, the Speaker is elected at the commencement of a new parliamentary term, or when a vacancy arises. The House must elect a Speaker before it proceeds with any other business. The Speaker is assisted by a Deputy Speaker, who is also the Chairman of the House in Committee. The current Speaker of the House of Assembly is the Rt. Hon. Helen Carter-Jones.
Clerk of the House of Assembly - On the floor of the House, the Speaker is aided by the Clerk of the House of Assembly, who along with his deputy, advises the Speaker on the privileges and standing orders of the House. The Clerk keeps time during a debate in the House and informs the Speaker when a Members time has expired. The Clerk maintains much of the day-to-day operations of the House, including recruitment of staff, financial matters, information technology and facilities management.
Serjeant-at-Arms - The Speaker is also aided by the Serjeant-at-Arms, who is charged with the maintenance of order on the floor of the House and is also responsible for care of the Mace of the House. The physical security of the House of Assembly, and indeed the entire parliamentary complex, is the responsibility of the Speaker. However, the enforcement of this power is largely delegated to the Serjeant-at-Arms. The Royal New England Constabulary cannot enter the parliamentary complex unless invited to do so by the Serjeant-at-Arms.
Committees
For a list, see Select Committees of the House of Assembly.
The House committee structure serves a variety of purposes. Committees consider bills in detail, and may make amendments. Other committees scrutinise various government agencies and ministries and hold their actions to account.
The most important committee is the House in Committee, which may consist of any or all the members of the House. The House in Committee meets in the Chamber of the House, but proceeds under slightly modified rules of debate, with a quorum of only the Deputy Speaker of the House, one government member, and one non-government member required. Matters considered to be relatively uncontroversial can be referred to the entire House in Committee, where substantive debate can take place. The House in Committee is unable to initiate nor make a final decision on any parliamentary business and decisions before it must be unanimous, with any divided decision sending the question back to the House at large.
The House of Assembly also has several standing committees, each of which has responsibility for a particular area of government (for example, finance or transport). These committees oversee the relevant government departments, may hold hearings and collect evidence on governmental operations and review departmental spending plans. Standing committees may also consider and amend bills. Standing committees consist of between five and seven members each, and elect their own chairmen and deputies.
The House may also decide to recommend that a legislative committee appointed on an ad hoc basis to study and amend a specific bill before it is passed. The membership of each legislative committee roughly reflects the strength of the parties in the whole House. A legislative committee is In addition, the Chairman of a legislative committee is not elected by the members of the committee, but is instead appointed by the Speaker, normally from among his deputies. Most bills, however, are referred to standing committees rather than legislative committees. The House may also create ad hoc committees to study matters other than bills. Such committees are known as special committees. Each such body, like a legislative committee, may consist of no more than seven members.
| Parliament of New England |
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| House of Assembly: Members · Leader of the Opposition · Leader of the Third Party Witan: 2012 · 2018 · 2036 · 2037 · 2045 Legislative Gazette |
