Pairing
Pairing is an arrangement where an MP of one party agrees with an MP of an opposing party not to vote in a particular division. This gives both MPs the opportunity not to attend. Such arrangements have to be registered with the Whips, who check that the agreement is stuck to. Pairing is not allowed in divisions of great political importance. The idea is systematised and pairings can last for months or years. Pairing is an informal arrangement, however, and is not recognised by the House's rules.

Parliament
The British Parliament is made up of three parts - the Crown, the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Parliament is where new laws are debated and agreed. In fact the name Parliament comes from the French word 'parler' which means to talk. Because of its role in law making it is often referred to as the 'Legislature'. Parliament should not be confused with the Government, although Members of the Government are also usually members of Parliament. However another responsibility of Parliament is to scrutinise what the Government does.

Parliamentary Agent
Parliamentary Agents are special lawyers who introduce and promote Private Bills through Parliament. As Private Bills affect only a particular group or individual such as a company or a local council it is up to them to petition Parliament to introduce a Bill. They therefore need a skilled person to work on their behalf. The drafting of Private Bills and their conduct through the two Houses is an involved affair. There are several firms who have satisfied the Speaker with their knowledge of Private Bill procedure and who alone may accept fees for taking a Bill through parliament. Agents must be registered with the Private Bill Office. One or more clerks assist the actual agent, who is usually one of the partners of the firm. One of the agent's duties is to negotiate with possible objectors to the Bill both before and during its parliamentary passage. Parliamentary agents can also act for petitioners opposing a Private Bill.

Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards
The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards is an Officer of the House of Commons. His or her job is to supervise the Register of Members' Interests and to advise the Committee on Standards and Privileges about issues relating to the MPs' Code of Conduct. This term of appointment is fixed by a resolution of the House of 26 June 2003 at five years, and is non-renewable. The Commissioner can be dismissed only if unfit or unable to carry out their duties.

Parliamentary Draftsmen
Parliamentary Draftsmen, also known as Parliamentary Counsel, are experienced barristers and solicitors who assist Government Departments in preparing Bills. Drafting legislation is a very skilled job and the Government employs specialist lawyers as civil servants to provide a central service available to all Government Departments. Government Departments send their proposals to the Counsel who produce draft versions of the Bill for the department to approve. Sometimes several drafts are needed before the Bill is finally ready.

Parliamentary Private Secretary
A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is appointed by a Minister to be his or her assistant. He or she is selected from back bench MPs as the 'eyes and ears' of the Minister in the House of Commons. It is an unpaid job but it is useful for an MP to become a PPS to gain experience of working in government.

Parliamentary Privilege
Members of Parliament have some special rights that members of the public do not have. These are known as Parliamentary Privilege. These rights enable Members to debate freely - for example an MP cannot be charged with libel for anything that he or she says in Parliament. It is important therefore that MPs use these rights responsibly and do not abuse them. The laws of Parliamentary Privilege have grown up over time and attempts to interfere with the rights of Parliament are known as Contempts. Cases of Contempt are referred to the Committee on Standards and Privileges , formerly the Committee of Privileges, which is a senior committee chaired by the Leader of the House and consists of the Attorney General and members of both Front Benches.

Party System
In Britain the party system has evolved from the historical division of Whigs and Tories in the Stuart period. The Tories were the representatives of the Monarchy and Anglicanism and the Whigs were the aristocratic party of foreign expansion. Under Gladstone the Whigs became the Liberal Party. In the early decades of the 20th Century the Liberal Party was pledged to social reform whilst the Conservatives stood more for the preservation of vested interests and tariff reform. The growth of the Labour Party led to the decline of the Liberals in the first part of the twentieth century but, since the 1970s, there have been increasing numbers of parties represented in the House of Commons. While Labour and Conservative have remained the largest parties, the Liberal Democrats have increased their strength, there are MPs from national parties in Scotland and Wales and a number of Northern Ireland parties.

Petition
A petition is a formal written request from one or more people to the Sovereign or Parliament. Petitions may be sent to Parliament postage free and can be presented formally by an MP with a short speech or informally in the Petition Bag which hangs on the back of the Speaker's Chair. Petitions have a long history as members of the public have used them to make their feelings known about issues that concern them. A petition is often signed by several thousand people and Parliament receives over a thousand each year. Because the tradition of petitions is an ancient one, the rules about them can seem out of date. For example a petition must be hand-written and must begin with the words, "To the honourable, the Commons of the United Kingdom in Parliament assembled".

Point of Order
MPs who believe that a breach of the rules of the House has occurred, or who want clarification on the rules, stand up and say "Point of Order, Mr Speaker". The point of order should then be put and the Speaker gives a ruling. Points of Order should not develop into debates. Speakers are not impressed with Points of Order being raised to waste time and often reject them as being attempts to make a debating point rather than a genuine Point of Order.

Policies
Policies are the group of ideas on which a political party stands for election. These policies form the basis of any legislation that the Government intends to bring before Parliament.

Poll
A poll is another name for an election. In an election, polling cards bearing the name of the constituency, the elector's name and address, the time and date of the poll and the location of the Polling Station are sent to each elector by the returning officer. Voting is simple - a cross is placed against the chosen name. No one other than the returning officer, the candidates and spouses and the counting clerks can attend the count except by permission of the returning officer. The ballot papers are counted and immediately after the declaration of the count and announcement of the winner, the papers are sent to the Clerk of the Crown who keeps them for a year before destroying them.

Pre-budget report
The Pre-Budget Report used to be called the autumn statement and is issued in the autumn of each year by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. It reports the Government's assessment of the economy, outlines the budget aims, and tries to encourage an informed debate on the issues.

Pre-Legislative Scrutiny
Pre-legislative scrutiny is when a Bill is considered in draft by a select committee before being introduced in Parliament. The Bill is often looked at by the select committee for the government department sponsoring the Bill but sometimes ad hoc committees are appointed.

Pressure Group
A pressure group is a group that puts pressure on Parliament or the government to try to persuade them to amend or make a new law about their area of interest. Pressure groups have played an increasingly prominent role in British politics. In general they fall into two main groups: i) those groups concerned with a single issue, for example animal welfare or nuclear disarmament ii) those groups attempting to promote their own interests, for example oil producers. Pressure groups are also known as interest groups or lobby groups.

Prime Minister
The Prime Minister is the leader of the Government. He or she is the leader of the party that wins the most seats at a General Election. After a General Election, the Queen calls upon the leader of the largest party to form the Government. The Prime Minister chooses the other members of the Government and has a residence and offices at 10 Downing Street. In Parliament, the Prime Minister sits on the Government Front Bench near the Despatch Box in the House of Commons. He or she is also an MP. The Prime Minister has powers to appoint judges, propose the creation of Life Peers and make appointments to senior positions in the Church of England. The title of Prime Minister does not constitutionally exist - the Prime Minister's actual title is First Lord of the Treasury.

Prime Minister's Question Time
The Prime Minister answers questions from MPs in the House of Commons every Wednesday from 12.00pm until the end of Question Time at 12.30pm. The Prime Minister therefore answers questions for about two hours a month. This regular and frequent questioning of the Prime Minister is relatively new having been introduced in 1961. One of the strangest features of Prime Minister’s Question Time is that MPs put forward the same question, asking for a list of the Prime Minister's official engagements for the day. The reason for this is that questions must be written down in advance in the Order Paper for the day. This is actually done by the first Member who asks a question saying "number one". However, once the Prime Minister has answered that question, the MP is allowed a follow up question which is not written down and can be on any subject which relates to prime ministerial responsibilities or to almost any aspect of government policy. The Leader of the Opposition is allowed three or four supplementary questions in succession to his first, and the leader of the next largest party is allowed two.

Private Bills
Private Bills are Bills that usually relate to one area, company or individual. The great majority of Private Bills are promoted by local authorities or by private companies. Historically the greatest use of a Private Bill was for the construction of railways in the 19th Century. Proposals for each line or extension of a line had to be put before Parliament. Private Bills are brought in after a petition by the person or organisation that wants a change in the law. These petitions have to be presented to Parliament on or before November 27th each year. The Chairman of Ways and Means in the Commons and the Lord Chairman of Committees in the Lords decide which Bills should start in the Commons and which in the Lords. In general, substantial local authority legislation and other complex Bills are started in the Lords, but any Bill that is politically contentious is started in the Commons. The assumption is that a Private Bill will seek rights and powers over and above those sanctioned by public acts or the common law, to which others may wish to object. Parliament therefore requires that the information that a Bill is to be promoted should be given by public advertisements in newspapers, the official gazettes and in writing to all those likely to be affected by a Bill on or before 11 December each year.

Private Members' Bills
Private Members' Bills are Bills put before Parliament by individual MPs rather than the Government. Because the time set aside for Private Members’ legislation is limited a ballot decides which MPs will be able to present their Bill at the most favourable times. This ballot also establishes the priority of Private Members' Bills and is held shortly after the beginning of each session of Parliament. The 20 members who are successful put their Bills down for discussion on a particular day, which is now usually a Friday (Private Members' Bills Fridays). In practice it is very difficult for an individual MP to get a Bill approved by Parliament and many Private Members' Bills fail through lack of government support or time. Private Members' Bills can be introduced at other times. Some are introduced without debate, but very few of these have a chance of becoming law. Ten Minute Rule Bills are also a form of Private Members' Bill.

Private Sittings
The House nowadays allows members of the public (everyone who is not a Member or Officer of the House is a "Stranger") to be present at its debates, though not at prayers. This, however, was historically not always the case; and the right to debate a matter in private is maintained. Should it be desired to conduct a debate in private, a Member moves "That this House sit in private", the Speaker or whoever is in the Chair, must then put the motion "That this House sit in private" without debate. When the House goes into private session, no word-for-word written, sound or television recording is made. A private sitting last occurred on 3 December 2001.

Privy Councillor
Privy Councillors are members of the Queen's own Council: the 'Privy Council'. There are about five hundred members who have reached high public office. Membership includes all members of the Cabinet, past and present, the Speaker, the leaders of all major political parties, Archbishops and various senior judges as well as other senior public figures. Their role is to advise the Queen in carrying out her duties as Monarch. In the past Privy Councillors were the chief governing body and fulfilled the role that the Cabinet performs today. During debates in the Commons, MPs who are Privy Councillors are referred to by their colleagues as `The Right Honourable Member'.

Programme Motion
There has long been pressure for Bills to pass through Parliament according to a timetable. For a trial period from 1997-98 certain Bills were selected to be subject to a 'programme motion'. The first programme motion was put down on 13th January 1998 - the Scotland Bill. In October 2002 the House formally agreed to the use of programmes as the normal practice for government bills. A programme motion is usually agreed to immediately after a bill's second reading and then becomes known as the 'programme order'. Programme orders help to make a bill's progress through its various stages much more predictable. Programme orders cannot timetable proceedings in the Lords.

Proportional Representation
Proportional Representation is an electoral system in which the distribution of seats corresponds closely with the proportion of the total votes cast for each party. For example, if a party gained 40% of the total votes, a perfectly proportional system would allow them to gain 40% of the seats. This would not usually be the case in the First Past the Post system, used for Westminster elections. Different electoral systems achieve varying degrees of proportionality.

Prorogation
When a parliamentary session comes to an end, the House is prorogued until the next session begins. Prorogation is the formal end to the Parliamentary year. Following prorogation all Motions, including early day motions, and questions which have not been answered, fall. A bill which has not obtained royal assent by the end of the session in which it was introduced usually 'dies', and has to be reintroduced in the next session. The House agreed, however, on 29 October 2002, to a temporary standing order providing a mechanism for some bills to be 'carried over' from one session to the next.

Public Bills
Public Bills deal with matters of public policy. Most are introduced to Parliament by the Government. They tend to be general in character and affect everyone.

Public Business
Public Business is the main business of the day in the House of Commons that follows questions, urgent questions and statements.

Courtesy of www.parliament.uk