How Does Parliament Work?

TASK THREE: Working in a group of 2 or 3, use all of the following links to write or type 10 points about how Parliament works, including an explanation (with examples such as this) of what a Select Committee is:

The role of the Culture, Media, Sport Select Committee (official website)
http://www.explore.parliament.uk/
BBC News interactive guide;
Wikipedia entry;
Tim Loughton (MP) guide;
Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield MP) guide;
Parliament.uk guide.

We will finish off the lesson by checking you can answer these questions:

1. Who is our local MP, what is his constituency called, which party does he represent and is he in a safe or a marginal seat/constituency?
2. Can you explain how Parliament works?
3. What does a backbencher do?
4. What is a Select Committee? Can you give any examples of Select Committees which have been in the news recently? (this is a useful one)

If there is sufficient time, you could also look at the video at Parliament.uk on how Parliament works. This raises questions such as:

How many ministers have responsibility for different areas of our lives like transport and education? - Is Parliament bigger or smaller than the government? - What does parliament make and revise? - Where do MPs sit? - How do backbenchers get their opinion heard?