Parliamentary Law Making Flashcards
1
Q
Legislative Process Order
A
1) Pre-legislative process (Green and White Papers)
2) Bill is drafted
3) First reading
4) Second reading
5) Committee stage
6) Report stage
7) Third reading
8) Repeat stages 1-7 in other house
9) Royal Assent
2
Q
What is a Green Paper?
A
- Initial consultation document to gain views about proposed new law
- Inviting suggestions from a variety of interested parties
- Amendments may be made in light of feedback
3
Q
White Paper
A
- Document that sets out gov’s preferred approach to a future piece of legislation
- Limited opportunity for comment: this document is info
4
Q
What is a Public Bill?
A
- Involve matters of public policy
- Affecting whole country or most of country
- Most gov bills are in this category
5
Q
e.g. Public Bill
A
Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015
6
Q
What is a Private Members Bill?
A
Gives opportunity to individual MPs who are not part of gov (backbenchers) to introduce a bill
7
Q
e.g. Private Members Bill
A
Abortion Act 1967
8
Q
What is a Private Bill?
A
- Designed to create law which only affects individual people/corporations
- Do not affect whole community
9
Q
e.g. Private Bill
A
University College London Bill 1996
10
Q
First Reading
A
- Formality
- Short title and main aims of bill are announced
- Order for bill to be produced
- No debate
11
Q
Second Reading
A
- Main debate takes place
- Describes aims of bill and fields questions
- Main principles of bill, not specific detail
- Vote taken
12
Q
Committee Stage
A
- Detailed examination undertaken by committee of 15-60 MPs
- Committee entitled to make recommendations for any amendments necessary for the Bill to reflect intention discussed in 2nd reading
13
Q
Report Stage
A
- After scrutiny by Committee, report back any amendments for debate
- Vote on whether to accept amendment
14
Q
Third Reading
A
- Final chance to look at Bill again as a whole with all amendments and decide if they want it to go further
- Formality as a Bill is unlikely to fail at this stage
15
Q
Repeat Process in Other House
A
- Passed to the other house where it goes through the same stages
If either house make amendments, it will go back to the house it came from to consider these amendments (ping-pong) - If 2 houses cannot agree: House of Lords cannot delay passage of a Bill by up to 1 year, only ever happened 4 times
