There are three types of committees in the Senedd: standing committees, subject committees and regional committees. Senedd Committees normally meet on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays when the Senedd is in session.Read More

Oral questions for answer by Welsh Ministers in the Senedd, are tabled between five and ten working days before the time scheduled for questions to specified ministers. Written questions are tabled in the same manner as oral questions.Read More

Mondays and Fridays are normally set aside for constituency business. The Assembly meets in plenary session on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. Committees meet on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings and on Thursdays. Recess dates tend to resemble those for the House of Commons, but they are not required to.Read More

The Senedd is made up of 60 Assembly Members elected by the Additional Member System. Each voter has two votes - one for a constituency member and one for a member from a regional list.Read More

Find information on when the Commons meets and Parliament is sitting. Here you will find a timetable of parliamentary meetings with guides to the hours of sittings, recess dates, and Westminster Hall. To find out more on this issue click through our guide to sittings in the House of Commons.Read More

EU economic policy, the single market and regional policy would not effectively secure economic and social cohesion without a legal framework to ensure fair treatment for all citizens. For example, if workers have fewer rights in some member states than in others businesses would (all other things being equal) be incentivised to move to those...Read More

The EEC was initially an economic project, aimed at reducing the 'cost of non-Europe' – that is, of stimulating trade between and economic activity in member states by creating a larger free trade area. This simple idea aimed to see the costs of European business reduced by removing internal tariffs and standardising regulation – a...Read More

The EU's 'secondary legislation' is that form of legislation that affects day to day life within the EU and with which most people are familiar. It is the kind of law made under the powers created and invested in the EU by the treaties – the EU's 'primary legislation'. EU secondary legislation falls into four...Read More

Lords Select Committees tend to be set up to consider issues that cut across government departments, which means that they rarely overlap with the departmental select committees of the House of Commons.Read More

The Salisbury Convention, sometimes called the 'Salisbury doctrine', states that the Lords will not vote down a Bill that seeks to enact a manifesto pledge on which a government was elected. Some have questioned the Convention, following the 1999 Lords Reform which removed the majority of hereditary peers.Read More

A debate on the Second Reading of a Bill is a debate on its general principles (on the motion ‘that the Bill be now read a Second time’). It is normally at least two weeks after introduction. The peer in charge of the Bill opens the debate by outlining the Bill’s provision and making the...Read More

  History There shall be a Scottish parliament’ Scotland Act 1998, section 1(1) The Scottish parliament has the authority to initiate and pass primary legislation and to vary the basic rate of income tax by up to three pence in the pound from the UK-wide rate. The transfer of powers from London to Edinburgh took...Read More

'There shall be a Scottish parliament' Scotland Act 1998, section 1(1)Read More

The State Opening of Parliament, with all its pageantry and pomp, marks the beginning of a new Parliamentary Session. In the associated Queen's Speech, the Monarch reads out the Government's proposed legislative programme for the Session. During the event, an MP is held hostage at Buckingham Palace until the Monarch returns.Read More

DUP MP for Strangford in 2015. Former solider and social conservative. Once cruelly voted the 'least sexy' MP.Read More

Steve Rotheram, Labour MP for Liverpool WaltonRead More

Dewsbury, ConservativeRead More

Stephen Phillips, Conservative MP for Sleaford and North HykehamRead More

Sarah Newton, Conservative MP for Truro and FalmouthRead More