its policy that it has made it a 'matter of confidence'; and thus to force the Government to resign.
The financial control necessary to ensure that money shall be spent only with the authority of Parliament and for the purposes authorized by Parliament is exercised by the whole House of Commons resolving itself on a specified number of days during each session into a Committee of Supply to discuss public policy relevant to the Estimates of Government Departments, which provide the programme for the year's finance.[1] If the House approves the Estimates, the sums asked for are voted in the Appropriation Act of the current year. Some Estimates are also examined by the Select Committee on Estimates which consists of 36 members of the House in proportion to party strength.
A further measure of control is exercised by the Select Committee on Public Accounts, which considers whether full value has been obtained for the sums spent and examines cases in which the administration appears to have been faulty or negligent. Its findings are published in Reports which may be discussed in the House.
Methods of general control are provided by (1) the institution of Question Time, which is a daily hour of parliamentary time during which members may question any minister on matters for which he is responsible and thus focus the attention of the public on the day-to-day processes of government; (2) the practice of bringing on a debate, when the reply to a question is not satisfactory, by moving the adjournment of the House;[2] (3) the right of members to raise any matter on the motion for adjournment of either House at the end of each day's sitting; and (4) the power to confirm or annul the Orders or Regulations made by ministers under the many Acts which delegate legislative power to them. Furthermore, Government policy and action are fully discussed in the important debates which take place during the proceedings at the opening of Parliament and in the motion for the adjournment of the House before a recess.
Before the emergence of the system of Cabinet government in the eighteenth century, the King in Council or the Privy Council was the chief source of executive power in the State. As this system developed, however, the Privy Council declined in importance; many of its powers were transferred to the Cabinet, and much of its work was handed over to newly created Government Departments. The present-day Privy Council exists mainly to give effect to policy decisions made elsewhere. Apart from Cabinet Ministers, who must be Privy Counsellors and are sworn of the Council on first assuming office, membership of the Privy Council is accorded by the Sovereign on the recommendation of the Prime Minister as an honour to persons who have reached eminence in some branch of public affairs, and is retained for life. There are at present over 300 Privy Counsellors.
The Privy Council is convened by the Clerk to the Council. At meetings where the Sovereign is present, three Privy Counsellors form a quorum, but in practice never less than four are summoned to attend. The whole Privy Council is called together only on the death of the Sovereign or when the Sovereign announces his or her intention to marry. The Privy Council is the instrument for the making of Orders in Council, which remains one of the chief methods of giving the force of law to executive acts. Such Orders
- ↑ See also p. 98.
- ↑ It is permitted to move the adjournment of the House before taking up the business of the day only if the matter is deemed by the Speaker to be definite and urgent and if 40 members rise in their places to support it, or ten members rise and the House grants leave on a division. The debate on such occasions takes place later in the evening of the same day.
