BRIEFING PAPER Number 02873, 14 March 2019 By Richard Kelly Confidence Motions Contents: 1. The confidence relationship between Parliament and the Government 2. Confidence votes under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 3. Confidence votes before / outside the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 4. Forms of Confidence Motions 5. Constitutional Practice Relating to Confidence Motion 6. A question of confidence in the Government, not the Prime Minister 7. The result of Government defeat on a Confidence Motion: previous cases www.parliament.uk/commons-library | intranet.parliament.uk/commons-library |
[email protected] | @commonslibrary 2 Confidence Motions Contents Summary 3 1. The confidence relationship between Parliament and the Government 4 2. Confidence votes under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 5 3. Confidence votes before / outside the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 7 4. Forms of Confidence Motions 11 Examples 12 Parliamentary proceedings 13 5. Constitutional Practice Relating to Confidence Motion 16 6. A question of confidence in the Government, not the Prime Minister 19 7. The result of Government defeat on a Confidence Motion: previous cases 21 Consequences of previous government defeats in confidence motions 21 Appendix - List of Confidence Motions 23 1. Government defeats on confidence motions since 1895 23 2. Confidence motions since 1945 24 Additional Author: Professor Gavin Phillipson, Professor of Law, University of Bristol, and a Parliamentary Academic Fellow working in the House of Commons Library Cover page image copyright CRI-7801 by UK Parliament/Mark Crick image. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 / image cropped. 3 Commons Library Briefing, 14 March 2019 Summary It is a core convention of the UK constitution that the Government must be able to command the confidence of the House of Commons.