Parliamentary law making Flashcards
What is the key principle in a democracy?
- Laws should be made by the elected representatives of society
What are the laws that are passed by parliament known as?
- Acts of parliament
- This source of law is referred to as statute law
What does parliament consist of?
- The House of Commons
- The House of Lords
Who sits in the House of Commons?
- Members of Parliament who are elected by the public
How often is there a general election?
- At least once every five years, however there can be by-elections in constituencies where the MP has died or retired
Who is the government of the day formed by?
- The political party with the majority of MP’s in the HOC
Who are the members of the House of Lords?
- Non-elected body
- Originally members were hereditary peers however this changed in 1999
- There are 92 hereditary peers
- 26 Senior Bishops of the Church of England
- 640 Life Peers (people who have served the country or who have expertise they can offer
What are the influences on Parliament when making new laws or changing existing ones?
- Political influence- When Government is formed it will have set out a programme of reforms it intends to carry out in its party manifesto, party manifesto will have influenced public to vote for it in General Election, therefore most new laws arise from government policy
- Public opinion/media- Government are likely to listen to strong public opinion since they want to win the electorate’s vote. Media have influence over electorate (newspapers, TV, radio, social)
- Pressure groups- may influence law by bringing matters to the attention of the general public
What are the two types of pressure groups?
- Sectional- represent only a particular section of society (Law society)
- Cause- exist to promote a particular cause, e.g. Greenpeace
What is lobbying?
- When pressure groups try to persuade individual MP’s to support their cause
What are the advantages of political influences on law making?
- Majority of electorate will have voted Government into power so if their proposals are enacted the electorate will get what they voted for
What are the disadvantages of political influences on law making?
- New government not bound by any laws therefore able to repeal laws they do not agree with, this can be costly.
- Government may only win election with a very small majority or may have to form coalition government. Means they are restricted in laws they can propose and may have to compromise
What are the advantages of public opinion on law making?
- Sometimes influenced by a specific event such as The Dunblane Massacre in 1996, shooting led to Firearms amendment Act 1997
- Social media can bring issues to public attention immediately
What are the disadvantages of public opinion on law making?
- Knee jerk reactions, too fast of a response = poorly drafted law, e.g. Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, which had to be amended within 5 years
- Media can manipulate public opinion, e.g. News of the World “Name and Shame Campaign”
What are the advantages of pressure groups on law making?
- They raise important issues
- Are powerful
What are the disadvantages of pressure groups on law making?
- Can be argued they are only interested in furthering their own cause
What are advantages of lobbyists on law making?
- Bring issues to attention of parliament, can lead to a debate which brings publicity for the issue
What are the disadvantages of lobbyists on law making?
- Professional lobbyists may abuse the system
What is involved in the pre-legislative process?
- A green paper which states the Government’s view and its proposal for law reform, interested parties are invited to send comments for changes
- A white paper which has firm proposals for the new law
What are the types of bill?
- Most acts are public bills meaning they will affc et everyone
- Private members’ bills, bills can be sponsored by individual MP’s
What are the two ways an MP can introduce a Bill?
- By ballot- 20 private members Bills can be presented to Parliament, limited time for debate, The Abortion Act 1967 was a private members bill
- Ten minute rule- backbenchers may try to introduce a Bill under the rule that any MP can make a ten minute speech
What does a public bill involve?
- Matters of public policy
Who do private bills effect?
- Individual people or corporations
What are hybrid bills?
- A cross between public and private bills, introduced by government, only affect a particular person or group
What is the role of the House of Lords in the legislative process?
- HOL acts as a check on the HOC
- HOL power is limited by the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 (HOC can bypass them)
- Reason for above is that HOC is a non-elected body so should not override the electorate
In what house do bills start?
- A bill may start in either house with the exception of finance bills which must start in the HOC
List the 7 stages that a bill must go through
- The first reading
- The second reading
- The committee stage
- The report stage
- The third reading
- The House of Lords
- Royal assent
What is the first reading?
- Formal procedure
- Name and aim of bill stated
- No discussion at this stage
- Vote on whether bill wants to be taken further
What is the second reading?
- Main principles debated
- Vote taken at end of debate (vote is either verbal or involves two “tellers”)
What is the committee stage?
- Detailed examination of each clause
- Carried out by standing committee
- Opposition and minority parties will be represented proportionally although Government will have majority
- For finance bills the whole house will sit in committee
What is the report stage?
- Amendments would have been made in committee stage and these amendments are now reported back to house
- Stage ensures committee cannot amend the bill against the wishes of the house
What is the third reading?
- Final vote
What happens during the House of Lords stage?
- Bill goes through same 5 stages but in opposite house
- If bill started in opposite house procedure will be opposite way round
What is royal assent?
- When the bill gets formal approval from the monarch
- Final stage
- Bill is now formality
- Act will come into force at midnight of that day, unless another time has been set
What are the advantages of the legislative process?
- Democratic- made by elected representatives
- Full reform- whole areas of law can be reformed in one act, judges only able to reform small areas of the law
- Broad policy- broad policies can be set and powers can be given to others to make the detailed rules (delegated legislation)
Consultation- government can take subjections and objections into consideration, e.g. through the green and white papers, thorough debate also
What are the disadvantages of the legislative process?
- Lack of time- parliament is busy, may not have time to review all law reform proposals
- Long process- all stages can take several months
- Government control- government control parliamentary timetable and will prioritise own agenda, meaning important issues can be missed
- Complexity- acts of parliament can be difficult to understand
