About the Grenada
Houses of Parliament
Parliament democracy as we understand it today is based upon the consent of the governed. Sovereignty resides in the people and it is they who decides who shall occupy the seats of power.
Parliament consists of the queen, represented by the Governor general the senate and the House of Representatives. The Governor-General summons Parliament, brings its session to an end by prorogation, and formally assents to every bill before it can become law. In practice, he exercises all these powers on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet.
Grenada Houses of Parliament
The Parliament of Grenada came into being in 1974 when Grenada became an independent country.
Parliamentary democracy as we understand it today is based upon the consent of the governed. Sovereignty resides in the people and it is they who decide who shall occupy the seats of power.
It's been 50 years since establishment
Mission Statement
To achieve good governance through the provision of services and procedural advice to Members of the Houses of Parliament.
Vision Statement
To ensure that efficient, reliable and professional service is provided to Parliament and its communities.
Corporate Plan
Click here to view newly implemented strategic Plan for the Parliament of Grenada for the period 2021– 2023.
The Structure of Parliament
Parliament democracy as we understand it today is based upon the consent of the governed. Sovereignty resides in the people and it is they who decides who shall occupy the seats of power.
Parliament consists of the queen, represented by the Governor general the senate and the House of Representatives. The Governor-General summons Parliament, brings its session to an end by prorogation, and formally assents to every bill before it can become law. In practice, he exercises all these powers on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet.
The passage of legislation depends on the participation of all three component parts of Parliament. A bill must be agreed to by both houses and receive the Royal Assent before it can become an Act of Parliament. The powers of the Senate and the House of Representatives are constitutionally equal except that financial legislation may not be introduced in the Senate.
All Senators are appointed by the Governor-General on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. The Houses of Representatives is directly elected by the people, and although by traditional the Senate is the Upper House of Representatives which plays the predominant part in the parliament system.
The Senate
The Senate consists of thirteen (13) Members.
Seven are appointed on the advice of the Prime Minister;
Three are appointed on the advice of the Leader of the Opposition; and
Three are appointed on the advice of the Prime Minister after he has consulted the organizations or interests which he considers the Senators should be selected to represent.
The House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is the focal point of parliament activity and public attention, the grand forum of the nation, where major national international issues are debated; where the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition may be seen in regular confrontation; where Cabinet Ministers defend the policies and conduct of their departments where the nation’s business is freely and openly transacted, all that is said and done being faithfully recorded.
Parliament makes the laws, and the House of Representatives plays the predominant part in making them. Any member can introduce bills, except bills involving expenditure or taxation, which can only be introduced by the government. Since the responsibilities of government now involve spending money (and raising it by taxes, fees, loans and so forth), most of the time of the House is spent by the Governor-General.
Every bill must pass both Houses and receive the Royal Assent before it becomes law, Assent is signified by the Governor-General. By law a general election must be held at least once every five years. However, Parliament may be dissolved and an election called before the statutory period has elapsed, and this is what normally happens. The power to dissolve Parliament is a royal prerogative exercised by the Governor-General, normally on the advice of the Prime Minister.
Government and Opposition
Parliament has three main functions which may be described as legislative, financial and critical. Only Parliament can pass laws, impose taxes and authorize public expenditure. The critical function is largely exercised by the Members of the Opposition who have a duty to the country no less important than that of the government. A highly significant feature of the parliamentary system is that the Opposition has an officially recognized status. The Leader of the Opposition, who is paid by the State, is the Member of the The House of Representatives who has the largest number of members supporting him in opposition to the Government.
Since Parliament spends most of its time dealing with government business, its critical function is of great importance. The Opposition is always anxious to keep the government “on its toes” and by making the most of their parliamentary opportunities strive to exert its influence both on government and public opinion.
All Members of Parliament are free to vote as they choose on the various matters which come before the House, but they rarely vote against their parties on major issues. The effective operation of Parliament depends today upon the party system which assumes that in most circumstances a party can count on the solidarity of its supporters.
The Prime Minister and Cabinet
Parliament is the law-making body but it is not the executive. It does not administer or enforce the laws. It is far too big to do so effectively and if it tried it would have to neglect its law-making and critical functions. Executing, administering, enforcing and carrying out the laws is the job of the Cabinet supported by the various Government Departments, Boards, Commissions and so forth. The Cabinet makes and implements government policy within the framework of laws Parliament has made.
The Prime Minister is appointed by the Governor-General.
The other members of the Cabinet are chosen by the Prime Minister and appointed by the Governor-General on the Prime Minister’s advice. There is no limit to the number of Ministers who may be appointed. The Cabinet which is answerable to Parliament controls the departments of the government and administers a wide range of laws and policies. Under the authority of various Acts of parliament, it is empowered to make regulations which can have a far-reaching effect on the lives of the people. It administers massive economic and appropriated by Parliament, are of such complexity that total financial control by Parliament is in practice impossible.
The Opposition
As already noted, the Opposition are officially recognized. In the official order of precedence the Leader of the Opposition ranks immediately after the Members of the Cabinet.
The job of the Opposition is to scrutinize everything that the government does, to criticize its measures and policies and propose alternatives of their own; and to draw attention to any inefficiency or mal-administration in the conduct of national affairs.
The Opposition regards itself as a government-in-waiting and its leader as a potential Prime Minister. The system assumes that at any time an alternative government is standing by and ready to assume the responsibilities of office.
The Members of Parliament
Some of the Members of the House of Representatives, of course, are neither Ministers nor Leader of the Opposition. They are private Members or backbenchers. What is their role? Edmund Burke, the great British statesman, nearly two centuries ago, laid down the principle that a Member is a representative, not a delegate. He is elected to speak and vote according to his conscience and judgement. His constituents will expect him to represent their interest and he will have been elected because many of them approved of his views and the policies he stood for. Nevertheless, he cannot possibly represent the views of his constituents to their satisfaction because all his constituents do not think alike on everything. He must therefore make up his own mind on various issues which come before Parliament, deciding where he stands in accordance with his party’s policies, his own conscience, and his personal view of what the national interest calls for.
The modern Member has more than one function to perform. He is a kind of ombudsman for his constituency to whom various problems, complaints and grievances are brought and he is expected to do his best to settle them. He is a legislator, who must attend the House and the parliamentary committees of which he is a Member. He is almost always a Member of a political party, to which he has commitments. He is expected to attend conferences, support good causes, keep his electors informed and look after his constituency, without neglecting his duties in the house.
Debates in the House often take place with some Members absent, but this does not mean that the absent Member is not attending to his parliamentary duties.
Parliament is the home of historic tradition, and most of the ceremonies associated with it are reminders of the origins of our system of government. Every session of Parliament is personally opened by the Governor-General with all the pageantry associated with the occasion.
In the case of the first session of a new Parliament, the first business of the House of Representatives is the election of its Speaker. The Speaker is both the Presiding Officer of the Houses and its Spokesman, and until he has been elected the House is not properly constituted.
The Governor- General opens the session with the traditional speech from the throne. In these days the speech is a statement of government policies and proposed measures and is prepared by the Cabinet. It provides the occasion for the first major debate of the session in both Houses of Parliament.
The President of The Senate
The President of the Senate is elected by the Senators from the Thirteen appointed by the Governor-General, and is usually one of those nominated by the Prime Minister. The President of the Senate ranks high on the precedence list (after Cabinet Ministers).
The President presides over Sittings of the Senate and shall act as Chairman of Committees of the Whole Senate. He/She shall have power to regulate the conduct of business in all matters not provided for in the Senate and in Committee respectively and their decision upon any point of order shall not be open to appeal and shall not be reviewed by the Senate upon a substantive motion after notice.
Neither the President nor any other Senator presiding shall vote unless the votes of the other Senators are equally divided in which case he/she shall give a casting vote.
The Speaker of The House
The Speaker of the House of Representatives is elected by the Members from among their own numbers or from persons who are not members. He is the representative of the House, the guardian of its privileges, and its presiding officer. He is the servant of the House, but one whose authority and prestige confer upon him the role of leadership in upholding the integrity of Parliament. The official order of precedence recognizes his status by according him sixth place after the Governor-General, Prime Minister, Chief Justice, Cabinet Ministers, and President of the senate. (The President of the Senate is elected by Senators.)
The Mace
The Mace symbolizes the authority of the Crown in Parliament and is used in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Its symbolism thus extends by delegation to the authority of each House individually and to the authority of the Speaker in each House. It extends also to the authority of the Sergeant-at-Arms when executing an order the direction of the Speaker.
The Mace is an essential part of the regalia of Parliament and without it neither Houses is considered to be properly constituted. When the Speaker is in the Chair the Mace rests in the upper brackets on the Table of the Houses. When the Houses resolves itself into a Committee of the whole, the Mace is removed into the lower brackets under the Table.
The Clerk of Parliament
The Clerk of The Houses of Parliament is the chief accounting officer and procedural advisor of the Houses of Parliament. He is responsible for maintaining the records of proceedings and endorsing the proper copies of Bills and Acts. In the role of an administrator he presides over the election of the Speaker at the first sitting of a new Parliament after general elections.
Parliamentary Procedure
Parliamentary procedure is often criticized as being complex and archaic. Complex it certainly is, and with good reason. Because of the antiquity of its origin there are also certain archaic elements about it. But it serves its purpose and is continuously evolving in order to meet the changing needs of Parliament.
The purpose of parliamentary procedure is to provide the conditions in which free and representative debate can take place. It is designed to allow minority opinion to be expressed without unreasonable restrictions and to enable the House to reach decisions on the issues before it without undue obstruction and delay. Its complexities serve to protect the rights of all Members collectively and individually.
The procedure of the Grenadian Houses is based on that of the British House of Commons although there are many important differences of detail. Parliamentary procedure consists of three main elements: the traditional practice, the Standing Orders and the accumulated precedents.
The traditional practice provides the fundamental framework of procedure. The Standing Orders are a later development which have introduced new procedures and imposed time limits and restrictions necessitated by pressure on the parliamentary time. The accumulated presidents form the parliamentary case-law derive from the rulings of successive Speakers interpreting both the traditional practice and the Standing Orders.
A fundamental rule of procedure is that no debate can take place unless there is a motion before the House. The wording of a motion must conform with accepted Parliamentary practice and be framed in such a way as to enable the House to reach a firm decision on it. A motion is normally subject to amendment and all amendments must be disposed of before the main motion is voted on. At the end of the debate the motion may be adopted, with or without a vote, or rejected.
Houses of Parliament
Grenada
Location & Contact
Grenada House of Parliament
Mt. Wheldale, St. George’s,
Grenada, W.I.
Opening Hours:
Mon – Fri: 8:00 am – 4:00 pm
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