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What is the House of Commons?

Explore the history, role, work and membership of the House of Commons.

Check Your Understanding

The House of Commons. Photo.
The House of Commons. Image: AP / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Key information:

The House of Commons is where Members of Parliament (MPs) meet. There are 650 MPs and they each represent a part of the country called a constituency.

Inside the House of Commons Chamber (see above image), the MPs who support the Government sit on one side of the room. The MPs from the Opposition sit on the other side. The Speaker is the name of the person who manages the debates, often shouting "Order!" to quieten things down.

The main responsibilities of the House of Commons are:

  1. To represent the voice of the people and debate important issues
  2. To review and make new laws
  3. To check what the government is doing and make sure their plans are fair and sensible

Easy-read booklet

A easy-read booklet called "You and Your MP" is designed to help people in the UK understand the role of an MP.

Parliament Live TV

Gammel TV. Foto.
Image: Science Photo Library, NTB scanpix / CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Parliament Live TV has video and audio recordings of debates from both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. You can either search the archive for a specific event (2007- today) or watch a live stream of what is happening right now.

Parliament Live TV

The archive for Parliament Live TV



Contains parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.