how many houses are in the british parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom The House of Commons is a democratically elected chamber with elections held at least every five years.[8] The two Houses meet in separate chambers in the Palace of Westminster (commonly known as the Houses of Parliament) in London. By constitutional convention, all government ministers, including the Prime Minister, are members of the House of Commons or, less commonly, the House of Lords and are thereby accountable to the respective branches of the legislature. Most cabinet ministers (Secretaries of State) are from the Commons, whilst junior ministers can be from either House. However, it should be noted the Leader of the House of Lords must be a peer and is a cabinet position, usually combined with a paid position.
Library of Parliament Designed by Thomas Fuller and Chilion Jones, and inspired by the British Museum Reading Room,[2] the building is formed as a chapter house,[3] separated from the main body of the Centre Block by a corridor; this arrangement, as well as many other details of the design, was reached with the input of the then parliamentary librarian, Alpheus Todd.[4] The walls, supported by a ring of 16 flying buttresses, are load bearing, double-wythe masonry, consisting of a hydraulic lime rubble fill core between an interior layer of dressed stone and rustic Nepean sandstone on the exterior.[5] Around the windows and along other edges is dressed stone trim, along with a multitude of stone carvings, including floral patterns and friezes, keeping with the Victorian High Gothic style of the rest of the parliamentary complex. The roof, set in three tiers topped by a cupola, used to be a timber frame structure covered with slate tiles, but has been rebuilt with steel framing and deck covered with copper.[6] The initial overall combination of colours—grey Gloucester limestone and grey Nepean, red Potsdam and buff Ohio sandstones, as well as purple and green slate banding—conformed to the picturesque style known as structural polychromy.[7]