parliamentary law-making Flashcards
a bill
a proposed law introduced in parliament that is drafted by parliamentary counsel and only becomes an act of parliament if completes all necessary stages in parliament
public bill
-give 1 example
most frequent type & affect public as a whole
Equality act 2010
private bill
-give 1 example
affect one particular area, organisation or institution
-UCL act 1996 to combine various hospitals
private members bill
-give 1 example
introcuced by individual MPs and in each parliamentary session 20 private members are selected to present bills to parliament but time is limited so very few of these bills become law
-Abortion Act 1967 was successful
house of commons
550 MPs
each MP elected to serve a constituency
house of Lords
about 800 unlected members, 700 of these are appointed life peers and as are 26 archbishops but 96 hereditary peers
what are the 2 parts of the pre-legislative process?
1) green papers
2) white papers
what is involved in the first stage of the pre-legislative process, green papers?
consultation documents by government that allow interested parties to make suggestions or ammendments
what is invloved in the second stage of the pre-legislative process, white paper?
takes into account views recieved from the green paper consultaion
what comes out from the pre-legislative process to then be used to start the legislative process?
the draft bill of formal legal language
briefly explain the 5 stages of the legislative process for house of commons and house of lords
- first reading
- second reading
- commitee stage
- report stage
- third reading
briefly describe the legislative process in the House of Commons for a bill which commences there
- first reading: this is a formality of the short title being read out with no discussion or vote
- second reading: represents the main debate on the bill. Minister or MP responsible describes aims of the bill, then a formal debate conducted. end of debate a majority vote is required for bill to proceeed.
- committee stage:allows for scrutiny of the bill & make amendments. Most bills are considered by a committee of expertises or those with great interest (15-60 MPs) and membership of these is roughly in proportion to seats a party holds in Commons (but for finance bills whole house sits in committee)
- report stage: after scrutiny the committee reports back to parliament to give amendments that are then debated and voted on for acceptance or rejection
- third reading: if approved it gets this as gives House final chance to look at bill as a whole again with all amendments, but no substantial changes can now be made before it gets passed to House of Lords if debate has a majority of acceptance
what is the ping pong stage and what happens if after this both Houses cannot agree?
bill passes back & forth between houses until consensus is reached.
power of house of lords rejecting bill is limited by parliament acts 1911 & 1949, which allow a bill to become law even if Lords rejects it provided that the bill is reintroduced to HOC in next session and passes through all stages again.
briefly describe the legislative process in the House of Lords for a bill which commences there
- first reading: this is a formality of the short title being read out with no discussion or vote
- second reading: represents the main debate on the bill. Government minister in the Lords describes aims of the bill, then a formal debate conducted. end of debate a majority vote is required for bill to proceeed.
- committee stage:allows for detailed scrutiny of the bill & make amendments. Unlike HOC all bills are considered by whole House in the Lords Chamber and any peer can partipate. Bill then amended, agreed to and voted on
- report stage: all members of Lords have opportunity to make amendments to proposals and then vote takes place on these amendments.
- third reading:amendments can still be made, for it to then be passed back to house of commons for their consideration
what happens once Commons and Lords agree on final version of the bill?
it can recieve royal assent and become an act of parliament which comes into force after a set period or immediately, etc.
give 4 advantages of the legislative process
- thorough: In HOC very thorough through use of opportunity for debate, challenge and scrutiny. HOL then provide expert and thorough revising chamber. Both Houses have members with exstensive expertises.
- democratic: largely democratice process. HOC is elected at least every 5yrs and the upper hand in any disputes with HOL (parliament acts 1911 & 1949). Also the role of the Monarch is now a ceremonial formality. Public can also lobby their MP too influence the legislative programme
- quick and effective: can be passed quickly in emergency situations (e.g. covid act 2020 to handle a pandemic was passed inall stages and recieved royal assent within a week of its introduction). Parliament can also reform and consolidate many areas of law in a single act (consumer act 2015)
- flexible: Allows different kinds of Bill to be introduced, so individual MPs can influence legislative agenda as well as the government (private members bills, abortion act 1967)
give 4 disadvantages of the legislative process
- undemocratic: HOL is unelected. Aprroval of the Crown is undemocratic. MPs are democratically elected but often obliged to take the whip and vote on party lines rather than with their conscience.
- time consuming: Government and parliament don’t always have time to or inclination to deal with all proposed reforms. Process of it becoming an act can take months due to ping pong stage (e.g. consumer act 2015 took 14 months from first reading to royal assent)
- principle of parliamentary sovereignty is difficult to remove or amend a badly drawn out piece of legislation so another act is required to amend or remove original legislation (dangerous dogs act 1991).
- Mps are not specialists in all areas of legislation, so some pieces of legislation will not recieve detailed scrutiny in HOC and more likely to have specialists in HOL
