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Now that the date of the next general election has been announced, you may hear some people talking about the dissolution of Parliament.

Parliament will be dissolved on 30 May ahead of the UK general election on 4 July.

So, what does it mean? And why does the dissolution of Parliament matter?

The dissolution of Parliament happens whenever there's a general election in the UK.

A general election is when adults in the country vote for who they want to represent their local area in the House of Commons in Parliament.

This person is called an MP - MP stands for member of Parliament.

Before every general election, the current Parliament must come to an end.

All the MPs leave their jobs, ready for the public to choose who will get the job next.

This is called the dissolution of Parliament.

By law, Parliament is dissolved 25 working days before a general election takes place.

Working days include the days of the week from Monday to Friday, and does not include weekends.

This means for this year’s general election on 4 July, Parliament will be dissolved on 30 May.

The House of Commons is where MPs meet to discuss and vote on important issues to do with how the country is run.

From the moment Parliament is dissolved, MPs are no longer MPs. They become members of the public again.

All the official business that usually takes place in the House of Commons comes to an end.

Everyone now looks ahead to the general election, when the people who will make up the new Parliament will be chosen.

The country still needs someone to be in charge right up until when the general election takes place.

So the prime minister and their team of government ministers stay in their jobs until then.

But the ministers can no longer use the letters 'MP' at the end of their name, because nobody is an MP any more.

Once Parliament has been dissolved, the prime minister goes to Buckingham Palace to meet with the King to inform him that a general election campaign is beginning.

MPs are no longer MPs, so if they want to be an MP again this isn't the time to rest!

They have between now and the general election to convince the public to vote for them to have the job again.

Candidates - people who are running to be elected as MPs - will be busy campaigning in the area of the country that they want to represent.

We have to wait until the results of the election to know who will be in the next Parliament.