Formal Legislative process Flashcards
What is the government?
The government is made up of 23 ministerial departments, e.g., Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Justice, Department for Education etc.
Each government minister has a department of civil servants and advisers.
The particular ministry which is responsible for the area in which a change in the law is being considered will draft ideas for change.
what is part of formal legislative process?
- Green and White papers
- Parliamentary processes
- role of house of commons and lords
how is major legislation made?
Major legislation is usually made through Acts of Parliament.
Acts of Parliament are also known as statutes.
The majority of Acts of Parliament are introduced by the government and these are initially drafted by lawyers in the Civil Service.
What is a green paper?
A Green Paper is a consultative document on a topic in which the government’s view is put forward with proposals for law reform.
Interested parties are then invited to send comments to the relevant government departments, so that a full consideration of all sides can be made and necessary changes made to the government’s proposals.
What is a white paper?
They will be required to appropriately responded to the feedback they received on the Green Paper, after which the consultation period will end and the government will publish a White Paper.
A White Paper is the firm proposal for new law.
This allows a draft Act called a Bill to be presented to Parliament.
What is parliament made up of?
The Monarch - King Charles III
House of Commons - an elected chamber with 650 constituencies being represented. All government ministers, including the PM, are members of the House of Commons.
House of Lords - Lords Temporal (appointed by the King on the advice of the PM); Lords Spiritual (archbishops and bishops); and also hereditary peers.
What is the role of the house of commons?
A Bill will only become an Act of Parliament if it successfully completed all the necessary stages in Parliament.
Most Bills are introduced in the House of Commons first. If the
HOC votes against a Bill, then that is the end of the Bill.
What is the role of the house of lords?
The House of Lords act as a check on the HOC.
All Bills go through the HOL as well as the HOC, and they can vote against proposed changes to the law.
In some cases, this may alert the HOC to a problem with the proposal and it will be dropped or amended.
What are the 7 key stages of parliament?
Consultation stage
First reading
Second reading
Committee stage
Report stage
Third reading
Royal Assent
what is the consultation stage?
The Government makes a draft of the bill and asks senior officials to make comments, along with members of the public and pressure groups.
what is the first reading stage?
The Government announce the bill by reading its title and the main aims.
What is the the second reading stage?
This is the main debating stage where MPs can discuss the bill, ask questions and vote on it. It could be voted out at this stage.
What is the committee stage?
A smaller group of MPs look at the bill in detail. They may make changes called amendments based on their discussions
What is the report stage?
Amendments made during the committee stage are reported to everyone in the House of Commons. MPs may vote on these amendments.
What is the third reading stage?
Overall consideration of the bill in the House of Commons and final votes are made to decide whether the bill goes any further.
The Bill then goes to the House of Lords (or House of commons if the Bill started there) and the process is repeated!
Any amendments have to passed back to the original House to consider and approve. This can lead to ‘Ping Pong’ between the Houses where a Bill is passed back and forth until both agree.
What is the royal assent stage?
The ruling monarch (i.e. The King) signs-off the bill as a new law, a.k.a. an Act of Parliament.
