United Kingdom

Structure

Data on parliamentary sessions, parliamentary committees and parliamentary groups.

Sessions

Number of ordinary sessions of parliament per year
Dates of parliamentary sessions
Dates of parliamentary sessions
Parliament is usually in ordinary session Extraordinary sessions can be held
January x x
February x x
March x x
April x x
May x x
June x x
July x x
August x
September x x
October x x
November x x
December x x
Number of days parliament met in plenary, per year
156 (2022)
See historical data for this field.
Notes For some parliaments, data can not be presented on an annual basis, for example because parliamentary sessions run from April to March of the following year. In such cases, the period to which the data corresponds is specified here.
Figures are calculated by parliamentary session, not by calendar year. For e.g., figures refer to a session running from 11 May 2021 to 28 April 2022.

Committees

Number of permanent committees This number does not include sub-committees or joint committees in bicameral parliaments.

Parliamentary groups

Parliamentary groups are recognized in the parliamentary rules “Parliamentary groups” are the primary means by which political parties organize themselves in parliament. They may also be known as “party groups”, “caucuses” or “fractions”. They are different from all-party groups on specific issues, or inter-parliamentary friendship groups.
Number of parliamentary groups
12 (2022)
See historical data for this field.
Not applicable. There is no minimum number of members to form a parliamentary group
Yes
Notes
There are no UK provisions for ‘Party Groups’ in the sense recognised in many other Parliaments, but of course MPs operate through their parties, thus figures refer in practice to individual parties. In the House of Lords there is a similar number of parties to the House of Commons, plus “Cross benchers” and non-affiliated Members both of which are not linked to established political parties; there are also 26 Church of England Bishops, who are not affiliated to political parties.
Independent members can jointly form a parliamentary group
Yes
Several parties can jointly form a parliamentary group
Yes
Relevant provisions about parliamentary groups in the parliamentary rules of procedure
The Companion to the Standing Orders provides that ”The Crossbench Group is made up of members not affiliated to any political party. Members belonging to smaller parties may also sit on the Cross Benches.” Elections for hereditary membership of the House are also sometimes based on group (party) membership.