The Scottish Parliament is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the capital city, Edinburgh, it is frequently referred to by the metonym Holyrood. The Parliament is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs), elected for five-year terms under the regionalised form of additional member system (MMP): 73 MSPs represent individual geographical constituencies elected by the plurality (first-past-the-post) system, while a further 56 are returned as list members from eight additional member regions. Each region elects seven party-list MSPs. Each region elects 15 to 17 MSPs in total. The most recent general election to the Parliament was held on 6 May 2021, with the Scottish National Party winning a plurality.
A private member's bill is a bill introduced into a legislature by a legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. The designation "private member's bill" is used in most Westminster system jurisdictions, in which a "private member" is any member of parliament (MP) who is not a member of the cabinet (executive). Other labels may be used for the concept in other parliamentary systems; for example, the label member's bill is used in the Scottish Parliament and the New Zealand Parliament, the term private senator's bill is used in the Australian Senate, and the term public bill is used in the Senate of Canada. In legislatures where the executive does not have the right of initiative, such as the United States Congress, the concept does not arise since bills are always introduced by legislators.
The Northern Ireland Assembly, often referred to by the metonym Stormont, 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.
A legal voting age is the minimum age that a person is allowed to vote in a democracy. For general elections around the world, the right to vote is restricted to adults, and most nations use 18 as their voting age, but for other countries voting age ranges between 16 and 21. Voting age may therefore coincide with a country's age of majority, but in many cases the two are not tied.
Robert John Blackman is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the chairman of the 1922 Committee since July 2024. He has also been a Member of Parliament (MP) for Harrow East since 2010. He served as the Joint Executive Secretary of the backbench 1922 Committee from 2012 to 2024. Blackman was the Member of the London Assembly (MLA) for Brent and Harrow between 2004 and 2008.
Helen Catherine Goodman is a British former politician who served as Member of Parliament for Bishop Auckland from 2005 to 2019. A member of the Labour Party, she was Deputy Leader of the House of Commons from 2007 to 2008 and a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2009 to 2010. She also served in government as an Assistant Whip from 2008 to 2009.
Philip Martin Dunne is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Ludlow constituency in Shropshire from 2005 to 2024. He is a member of the Conservative Party.
In England, local authorities have duties to homeless people under Part VII of the Housing Act 1996 as amended by the Homelessness Act 2002. There are five hurdles which a homeless person must overcome in order to qualify as statutory homeless. If an applicant only meets the first three of these tests Councils still have a duty to provide interim accommodation. However an applicant must satisfy all five for a Council to have to give an applicant "reasonable preference" on the social housing register. Even if a person passes these five tests councils have the ability to use the private rented sector to end their duty to a homeless person.
Members of the Legislative Assembly are representatives elected by the voters to the Northern Ireland Assembly.
The Climate Change Act 2008 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act makes it the duty of the Secretary of State to ensure that the net UK carbon account for all six Kyoto greenhouse gases for the year 2050 is at least 100% lower than the 1990 baseline, toward avoiding dangerous climate change. The Act aims to enable the United Kingdom to become a low-carbon economy and gives ministers powers to introduce the measures necessary to achieve a range of greenhouse gas reduction targets. An independent Committee on Climate Change was created under the Act to provide advice to UK Government on these targets and related policies. In the act Secretary of State refers to the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.
Joyce C. Murray is a Canadian politician who has represented the riding of Vancouver Quadra in the House of Commons as a member of the Liberal Party since 2008. She was re-elected in the 41st, 42nd, 43rd, and 44th federal elections. Murray was appointed as President of the Treasury Board and Minister of Digital Government on March 18, 2019. She was re-appointed as Minister of Digital Government following the 2019 election. In 2021, she was appointed Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, a position she held until July 2023.
Caroline Fiona Ellen Nokes is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Romsey and Southampton North since 2010. Elected as a Conservative, Nokes had the Conservative whip removed on 3 September 2019 and sat as an independent politician until the whip was restored to her on 29 October.
Heather Kay Wheeler is a British Conservative Party politician, who was first elected at the 2010 general election as the member of Parliament (MP) for South Derbyshire, taking the seat from the Labour Party after 13 years. In the 2024 general election she lost the seat to the Labour party candidate, Samantha Niblett, on a swing of over 32%
The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (FTPA) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which, for the first time, set in legislation a default fixed election date for general elections in the United Kingdom. It remained in force until 2022, when it was repealed. Since then, as before its passage, elections are required by law to be held at least once every five years, but can be called earlier if the prime minister advises the monarch to exercise the royal prerogative to do so. Prime ministers have often employed this mechanism to call an election before the end of their five-year term, sometimes fairly early in it. Critics have said this gives an unfair advantage to the incumbent prime minister, allowing them to call a general election at a time that suits them electorally. While it was in force, the FTPA removed this longstanding power of the prime minister.
Brexit was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Following a referendum held on 23 June 2016, Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020. The UK is the only sovereign country to have left the EU. The UK had been a member state of the EU or its predecessor, the European Communities (EC), since 1 January 1973. Following Brexit, EU law and the Court of Justice of the European Union no longer have primacy over British laws. The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 retains relevant EU law as domestic law, which the UK can amend or repeal.
Kirsty Blackman is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Aberdeen North since 2015.
Gord Johns is a Canadian businessman and politician. Since 2015, he has served as the New Democrat Member of Parliament for the federal electoral riding of Courtenay—Alberni in the House of Commons of Canada. He previously served as a town councillor for Tofino, British Columbia, and founded a number of small businesses.
An act of the Scottish Parliament is primary legislation made by the Scottish Parliament. The power to create acts was conferred to the Parliament by section 28 of the Scotland Act 1998 following the successful 1997 referendum on devolution.
Chlöe Charlotte Swarbrick is a New Zealand politician. Following a high-profile but unsuccessful run for the 2016 Auckland mayoral election, she became a parliamentary candidate for the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, standing in the 2017 New Zealand general election and was elected as a member of the New Zealand Parliament at the age of 23. In the 2020 election, Swarbrick was elected as the Member of Parliament for Auckland Central, becoming the second Green Party MP ever to win an electorate seat, and the first without a tacit endorsement from a major party leader. She retained Auckland Central in the 2023 election. In March 2024, she was elected co-leader of the Green Party.
The Thirty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland is an amendment to the Constitution of Ireland which altered the provisions regulating divorce. It removed the constitutional requirement for a defined period of separation before a Court may grant a dissolution of marriage, and eased restrictions on the recognition of foreign divorces. The amendment was effected by an act of the Oireachtas, the Thirty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution Act 2019.
