Prime minister's questions

Prime Minister's Questions, officially Questions to the Prime Minister (English for " Ask the Prime Minister ", generally PMQ or PMQs abbreviated ) is the name for an institutionalized Question Time in the British House of Commons where the Prime Minister accountable for the work of the Government stores.

History

Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was experimenting in his tenure with various formats of question hour, resulting in emerged in 1961 Prime Minister's Questions.

By the year 1997, the PMQs each lasted a quarter of an hour and found Tuesdays and Thursdays. One of the first acts of the Blair government in terms of parliamentary rules of procedure was merging into a half-hour question time on Wednesday.

Speaker John Bercow suggested in December 2009 to the displacement or duplication of question hour to increase the discipline meeting of the chamber.

Expiration

After calling the question hour by the Speaker traditionally asks a deputy of the chamber with the formula " Number One, Mr Speaker" the prime minister, list his daily appointments. This request corresponds to the Prime Minister with regard to discussions with other ministers in addition to its obligations in the House of Commons. If necessary, he speaks before answering this question about important current events. Following the MPs may ask one supplementary question on another subject on the agenda of the Prime Minister.

With the question of the daily routine of the prime minister, the session is still opened, because until recently, each member of the government was able to answer the questions instead of the government. This enabled the Prime Minister to avoid answering personal questions, because a British parliamentary rule states that the one who responds to a Member's question, is also responsible for the following questions. When asked about his daily routine, however, the head of government itself must give information, and consequently on all follow-up questions. The other main reason for choosing the first question is that only this question must be submitted in writing before the start of Question Time. So the fundamental questions can be addressed in an open battle of words without a prepared answers.

The opposition leaders are six questions that are usually divided into two groups of three. The head of the third largest party can ask two questions. The Speaker of Parliament tried to alternate between questions of the government and the opposition party. British Member of Parliament without official position, known as backbenchers (English backbench MPs) who want to put a question to the Prime Minister need to subscribe to a list, called the Order Paper. In a lottery, a random sequence is then defined, in which the members are called by the Speaker of the House of Commons ( lower house). Even MPs who do not get a good spot in the lottery or did not participate in the draw can be invoked to ensure the balance between the parties.

Can the head of government do not appear to the meeting due to official commitments, he is the Deputy Prime Minister or, if this is also prevented, represented by the President of the House of Commons ( lower house). It is common that in this case also, the opposition leader and the head of the third largest party send their deputies.

Since then, the parliamentary sessions be televised, the Prime Minister's Questions are an important part of the political culture in the UK. As it often happens in the Wednesday meetings to interesting confrontations, they are very popular, and the demand for spectator tickets is high.

The Prime Minister's Questions were also broadcast by American cable channel C- SPAN and parodied in skits of the television program Saturday Night Live.