2.3-the legislative process Flashcards
what is the difference between public and private bills?
- public bills affect the whole population
- private bills only apply to a certain group and give powers that are beyond or in conflict with general law
what is the difference between government bills and private members bills?
- government bills are introduced by government and seek to fill the governments manifesto commitements
- private members bills are introduced by back benchers
what is a key example of a succesfull private members bill?
voyeurism act 2019
Wera Hobhouse
why are private members bills often unsuccesfull?
- government controls most of the legislative angenda
- they are very suseptable to filibustering as there is very little time allocated to them
how can private members bills be introduced?
- ballot: mps enter a ballot at the start of the parliamentary session. 20 Mps are chosen and can propose their bill on one of the 13 fridays in the parliamentary session
- 10 minute bills: allow mps to make a case for a bill lasting up to 10 mins
- presentation: mps introduce a PMB but do not speak to support it.
what happens to a bill before it enters the HOC?
- can start with a green paper (a consultation)
- then turned into a white paper (a firm proposal)
- committees are allowed to comment
- the bill is drafted
what stages does a bill go through before it enters the lords?
- first reading: the bill is formally introduced by a minister
- second reading: a minister defends the bill, takes questions, at this stage the bill may be contested
- if the bill is contested their is a vote, which government generally wins
- committee stage: the bill is sent to a public bill committee (reflect the composition of the house)
- report stage: mps can propose and vote on any ammendments
- third reading: the bill is voted on
how is the process of a bill in the lords different to that of the commons?
- the committee stage is normally done in the chamber
- this is called the commitee of the whole house
what is the role of the lords in the legislative process?
- provides technical ammedments, only opposes a bill when it is truly justifies
- if the lords ammendements are rejected by the commons the lords generally accepts it lack of legitimacy and stands down
give an example of when the lords back down after the commons rejected its ammendements?
- the 2020 EU withdraal act was sent back to the commons with 5 ammendments
- one ammendments included the guarentee of the continuance of the ERASMUS (education) scheme
- the commons rejected all 5 and the lords backed down
what is parliamentary ping pong?
- when a bill goes back and forth between the houses before an agreement is made?
give an example of when parliamentary ping pong took place.
- the 2021 trade act
- the lords tried to introduce an ammendment that trade deals could not be agreed with countries who had committed genocide
- the bill went back and forth 6 times until the lords backed down
what is the salisbury convention?
- the house of lords should not vote down a bill that attempts to fulfill the governments manifesto
- they can introduce technical ammendements but not ‘wrecking ammendments that change the intention’
what limits do the 1911 and 1949 parliament acts put on the lords?
- 1911: removed the power to delay financial bills, veto power way replaced with the power to delay for 2 years
- 1949: reduced the power to delay to 1 year
what is secondary legislation?
allows ministers to introduce statutory instruments to make further changes witin the scope of the law
give an example of the use of statutory instruments? 2 examples
- statutory instruments are used to ban new substances by adding them to a list under the misuse of drugs act 1971
- during covid, the government created the coronavirus act 2020 which allowed them to implement lots of secondary legislation
how has the legislative scrutiny of the commons decreased in recent years?
- mps spend less time in the chamber
- the use of oral evidence in the committee stage has fallen
- very few bills recieve pre-legislative scrutiny (when they are green/white papers)
- the government often rushes bills through parliament
give evidence to show that mps spend less time in the chamber than peers.
- betwen 2006-2021 on average Mps spend 24% of time in the chamber
- while peers spent on average 44%
contrast 2 pieces of legislation to show that government has been rushing legislation through the commons.
- the recent illiegal immigration bill was given just 2 days in the committee of the whole house
- the 2016 immigration act had 15 committee sessions and recieved 55 written pieces of evidence
how long can committe reports take?
- up to 4 months
what % of bills passed recieve pre- legislative scrutiny?
10%
what % of bills passed were subject to atleast 1 oral evidence session?
27%
how does the government control the legislative timetable? (2)
standing order 14
- states that govt business takes precedence
programme motion
- the government sets the ammount of time given to each stage
give an example of a committee chair who was in the role for a long time.
- margaret hodge
- chair of the public accounts select committee from 2010 - 2015
which committee questioned dominic cummings?
- joing inquiry from the health and social care committee and the science and technology committee
how long was given to the scrutiny of the 2005 prevention of terrorism act?
17 days
- included an all night sitting in order to pass the bill in time
what factors undermine the effectiveness of public bill committees?
- membership is chosen by party whips
- very few ammendments arise as a result
how does the 2021 domestic abuse act show the effectiveness of public bill committees?
- 96 pieces of written evidence
- jess philips (labour) sat on the commitee- extensive experience in this area
