parliamentary law-making Flashcards
What 3 groups make up parliament ?
.house of commons
.house of lords
.king
What is a green paper ?
a document for consultation, that is issued by the gov department with responsibility for that issue.
What does a green paper consist of ?
The governments view is put forward along with their proposals for the new law.
How can a green paper be amended ?
Interested parties are then invited to send comments to the government department, so that a full consideration of all views can be made and any necessary changes made to the governments proposals.
What is a white paper ?
has governments firm proposals for the new law, taking into account the views received from green paper consultation.
What if the government has firm views on the topic ?
it can just issue a white paper without consultation
Why is consultation important ?
seen as valuable as allows time for mature consideration.
From time to time governments are criticised for acting in a ‘knee-jerk’ manner to incidents as a result, rushing through law that has proved to be unworkable e.g. dangerous dogs act 1991
What are public bills?
most frequent form of bill and usually involve matters of public policy that will affect either the whole country or a large section of it
-e.g.The Equality Act 2010, The Legal Services Act 2007 and The Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015
What can be turned into a public bill ?
It is also possible that private members bills can be a public bill if it affects the whole population e.g.The abortion Act 1967
What are private bills ?
When a bill is designed to pass a law that will affect only individual people or corporations, not the whole country
What are private members bills?
They are introduced and sponsored by individual MPs.
What is the process of presenting a private members bill ?
Under the parliamentary process, there can be a ballot in each parliamentary session in which 20 private members are selected who can take their turn in presenting a bill to parliament. However the time for debate on a bill is limited therefore only the first 6-7 members in the ballot have a realistic chance of introducing a bill on their chosen topic.
What is the order of stages for a bill in the House of Commons ?
1.First reading
2.Second reading
3.Commitee Stage
4.Report stage
5.Third reading
What is the order of stages for a bill in the House of Lords ?
1.First reading
2.Second reading
3.Comittee stage
4.Report stage
5.Third reading
What acts limit the power of the House of \lords to reject a bill?
Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949
These allow a bill to become a law even if the House of Lords rejects it, provided that the Bill is reintroduced to the House of Commons in the next session of Parliament and passes all the stages again there.
