Take a tour of the House of Lords Video Lecture | How does UK Parliament's Education Service works? - Personal Learning

so here we are in central lobby this is
the heart of Parliament and we are
equidistant between the Commons chamber
and the Lord's chamber usually this
space is teeming with people it's where
any member of the public can come but
today we're here to talk about the House
of Lords so we're going through to the
peers Lobby so here we are in the peers
Lobby again this is usually teeming with
people they might be members the public
who have come to watch our proceedings
and they walk through here to go up to
the gallery where they watch what's
going on in the chamber but through
those gates is the chamber where of
course most of our work is done whether
it's questions debates or part of the
legislation that is where it all happens
the press reports show how damaging that
can be but I shall indeed take all the
noble Lords points on board were right
at the heart of the House of Lords the
chamber and it's in the chamber that we
debate government policy passed laws and
generally scrutinized the activities of
the whole of what's going on in Britain
today and despite the gold leaf the
carved wood the heavily embossed leather
it's actually very much a working
chamber and I'm standing at the
despatch-box
which was work government ministers lead
with governing business however I can
report to the house that a pilot to
return these bookings behind me on my
right here is the government side and
most of these benches are occupied by
the peers who are the government party
save that right at the far end over my
shoulder is where the bishops always sit
I'm like crossing the chamber of the
House of Lords onto the opposition side
and the opposition sit along the benches
on my left and it's not only the main
opposition party it's also the
crossbenchers who are the independence
and one of the unusual characteristics
the House of Lords is that there is a
large independent presence which means
that no one party has an overall
majority
there are three other important parts
the chamber the links to useful to know
about the first one is the wool say
which is where the Lord speaker sits
over to my right here is the Clarkes
table and the Clarks are the
administrators the civil servants who
keep us all right and finally over my
shoulder is the oil throne
so here we are in the grand committee
room but it's also known as the Moses
room and you will see from that picture
of Moses coming down the mountain why
it's known as that it's used for debates
and where we discuss some of the detail
of the legislation enables the chamber
to be used for one bit of legislation
and here for another and the Minister
sits here at the despatch-box his civil
servant sit behind him and members the
public can sit here and watch the
proceedings in a very intimate
experience for them for in one of the
division lobbies this is where we settle
our arguments where our two division
lockers one content which means you're
happy with the argument and the others
are not content where you disagree and
we're in the not content if there is a
dispute it is put to the vote when the
vote is called bells ring throughout the
house of parliament and you have 8
minutes to walk through this Lobby after
8 minutes they see how many people have
walked through they go into the chamber
they will read out who was won and who
is lost and that's the way we settle our
arguments this is the Royal gallery and
the gallery is used for ceremonial
occasions which don't take place that
often but it's used every day for
meetings for example here we have a
table six chairs there are other tables
like this and there may be a meeting
which has been set up involving people
from outside the houses of parliament or
it may be simply peers hatching together
some plan sometimes it's very crowded
and very busy there's a lot going on and
other times it's very quiet and slightly
slightly spooky particularly late at
night
that way as the chamber but it's on the
upper floor that a lot of the work is
done in the committee rooms rough on the
committee corridor and with the House of
Lords chamber over there and the river
over there and this place is really
quiet now but normally it's a buzz with
people peers will spend as much time up
here on the committee corridor as they
do down in the chamber you just get that
sense of everything's alive here we
issues that are worrying people out
there in the street they're actually
going to be talking about here in this
corridor well we're off in one of the
committee rooms some of the rooms are
bigger than this some are smaller but
they all pretty much look the same and
this is where we do the important work
of scrutinizing government policy and
trying to influence future public policy
debates you'll have people from all
parties and indeed no parties coming
together to really dig deeply into an
issue that we feel strongly needs
investigating the energy or transport or
how we're going to feed the world in the
future so these doors here mark the end
of the House of Lords committee corridor
down below us is the central lobby which
is the central point of the houses of
parliament with two chambers flowing off
from it the House of Lords on one side
House of Commons over there
you