General elections will take place every five years unless a resolution of the House of Commons decides otherwise to reduce this period.

Parliament is limited to five years but elections are typically held every four to five years. The power of the Prime Minister, based on the Royal Prerogative, to decide when within the five years the election should be held is a very powerful one, especially now that opinion polls tend to be broadly correct. It is usually exercised when the incumbent sees the maximum electoral advantage for their own political party rather than for the country as a whole.

The Effect of an Uncertain Parliamentary Term

The agreed maximum length of a UK Parliament of five years is a good planning period during which a Government should be able to implement a substantial proportion of its policies. This is slightly more than the four year US Presidential cycle but less than the seven year French Presidential term.

As well as giving a political advantage to the incumbent prime minister, the uncertainty about when a general election may occur means that a lot of Parliamentary activity can be wasted as bills which have not completed all of their stages have to start again from the beginning in the new Parliament. In addition enquiries by committees stop and their reports are not published.

The uncertainty about the length of a Parliament also affects the management of all of the departments of state. Senior civil servants do not know how much effort to put into a particular policy if at an uncertain date a new Government may be elected with a different policy. This leads to inefficiency.

The Role of the House of Commons

The only reason why elections have been called at a time not of the choosing of the Prime Minister has been when the governing party has lost a vote of confidence in the House of Commons. This is however very unusual and last happened in 1979.

This should clearly remain as a sanction on the Government but other than this there is no reason for the benefit of the country, rather than for his or her political party, why the Prime Minister unilaterally should be able to dissolve Parliament using the Royal Prerogative and therefore call an election to try to get another term for him or herself.

Currently a motion of “No Confidence” passed by the House of Commons will lead to a general election. However the House of Commons conversely has no way of stopping a Prime Minister from calling an election. It is proposed that this position be reversed with there being an assumption that a Parliament will last for five years unless there is a House of Commons motion reducing this.

According to a ComRes survey of 154 MPs conducted in October 2007, 44% of MPs support fixed-term parliaments and 49% oppose them (support from 88% of Liberal Democrat MPs, 41% of Labour MPs and 25% of Tory MPs).

It is proposed that general elections should only be held every five years unless there is a resolution of the House of Commons that a general election be called, taking this discretion away from the Prime Minister.