2. The Budget and Parliament Law of the United Kingdom

United Kingdom legislatures[edit]

Main article: Legislatures of the United Kingdom

United Kingdom Parliament[edit]

The Houses of Parliament, as seen over Westminster Bridge
¹⁵Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is bicameral, with an upper house - the House of Lords, and a lower house - the House of Commons. The House of Lords includes two different types of members: The Lords Spiritual (the senior bishops of the Church of England) and the Lords Temporal (members of the Peerage). Its members are not elected by the population at large.
The House of Commons is a democratically elected chamber. The two Houses meet in separate chambers in the Palace of Westminster, commonly known as the "Houses of Parliament", in the City of Westminster in London. By constitutional convention, all government ministers, including the Prime Minister, are members of the House of Commons or House of Lords.
Parliament evolved from the early medieval councils that advised the sovereigns of England and Scotland. In theory, power is vested not in Parliament, but in the "King-in-Parliament" (or "Queen-in-Parliament"). The King-in-Parliament is, according to the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty, completely sovereign with the power to make and unmake any law other than to bind itself.
Real power is vested in the House of Commons. The Sovereign acts only as a figurehead and the powers of the House of Lords are greatly limited. The parliament retains some law-making powers for some jurisdictions outside of the United Kingdom proper.

Northern Ireland Assembly[edit]

Parliament Buildings, Stormont, Northern Ireland
Main article: Northern Ireland Assembly
The Northern Ireland Assembly (Irish: Tionól Thuaisceart Éireann,^[26] Ulster Scots: Norlin Airlann Semmlie)^[27] is the devolved legislature of Northern Ireland. It has power to legislate in a wide range of areas that are not explicitly reserved to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and to appoint the Northern Ireland Executive. It sits at Parliament Buildings at Stormont in Belfast.
The latest incarnation of the Assembly was established under the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, an accord aimed at bringing an end to Northern Ireland's violent 30-year Troubles. It is based on the principle of power-sharing under the D'Hondt method to ensure that Northern Ireland's largest political communities, the unionist and nationalist communities both participate in governing the region.
The Assembly is a unicameral, democratically elected body comprising 90 members who are known as Members of the Legislative Assembly, or MLAs. Members are elected under the single transferable vote form of proportional representation.

Scottish Parliament[edit]

Main article: Scottish Parliament

The public entrance of the distinctive Scottish Parliament building, opened in October 2004
The Scottish Parliament (Scottish Gaelic: Pàrlamaid na h-Alba; Scots: Scots Pairlament) is located in the Holyrood area of the capital Edinburgh. The Parliament, which is informally referred to as "Holyrood"^[28] (cf. "Westminster"), is a democratically elected body of 129 members who are known as Members of the Scottish Parliament or MSPs. Members are elected for four-year terms under the Additional Member System of proportional representation.^[29]
73 MSPs represent individual geographical constituencies elected by the plurality voting system ("first past the post"). A further 56 are returned from eight additional member regions, each electing seven MSPs.^[29] The Scottish Parliament, as it was created by devolution and an act of parliament, does not get its legislative powers by virtue of sovereignty or by virtue of `being the Scottish Parliament`. It legally exists as a subset of Westminster and derives its powers as such.
The original Parliament of Scotland (or "Estates of Scotland") was the national legislature of the independent Kingdom of Scotland and existed from the early thirteenth century until the Kingdom of Scotland merged with the Kingdom of England under the Acts of Union 1707 to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.^[30] As a consequence, the Parliament of Scotland merged with the Parliament of England, to form the Parliament of Great Britain, which sat at Westminster in London.^[30]

Senedd[edit]

The Senedd building in Cardiff, seat of the Senedd, the Welsh Parliament
Main article: Senedd
Since 2007, the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; Welsh: Senedd Cymru), previously known as the 'National Assembly for Wales', has been invested with legislative powers. It is situated in Cardiff. The Senedd, first elected in 1999, is a democratically elected body of 60 members who are known as Members of the Senedd or MSs. Members are elected for five-year terms under the Additional Member System of proportional representation. 40 MSs represent individual geographical constituencies elected by the plurality voting system ("first past the post"). 20 are returned from five additional member regions. Each region elects four MSs.