Statue Law Flashcards
Green Papers
Green Papers are consultation documents produced by the Government. The aim of this document is to allow people both inside and outside Parliament to give the department feedback on its policy or legislative proposals.
White papers
White papers are policy documents produced by the Government that set out their proposals for future legislation. White Papers are often published as Command Papers and may include a draft version of a Bill that is being planned. This provides a basis for further consultation and discussion with interested or affected groups and allows final changes to be made before a Bill is formally presented to Parliament.
Statute law
Statutes are made by Parliament, which consists of the House of Commons, the House
of Lords and the Monarch. Another term for a statute is an Act of Parliament. In Britain,
Parliament is sovereign, which has traditionally meant that the law it makes takes precedence over law originating from any other source though, as we shall see, membership
of the European Union (EU) has compromised this principle. EU law aside, Parliament can
make or cancel any law it chooses, and the courts must enforce it. In other countries, such
as the United States of America, the courts can declare such legislation unconstitutional,
but our courts are not allowed to do that.
House of commons
The House of Commons is the democratically elected chamber of Parliament. Every four
to five years Members of Parliament (MPs) are elected in a general election. There are 646
MPs who discuss the big political issues of the day and proposals for new laws.
House of Lords
The House of Lords acts as a revising chamber for legislation and its work complements the
business of the Commons. Members of the House of Lords are not elected by the general
public, instead the majority are appointed by the Queen on the recommendation of the
House of Lords Appointments Commission. The House of Lords currently has over 800
members, divided into four different types:
● life peers;
● retired judges of the former House of Lords’ judicial committee;
● bishops; and
● elected hereditary peers.
Life peers are appointed for their lifetime only, so the right to sit in the House of Lords is
not passed on to their children.
Modernising the House of Lords
Traditionally, hereditary peers have sat in the House of Lords and this right was
passed down from father to son. Membership of the House is currently under going a
major reform to remove the role of the hereditary peers. Their right to sit and vote in
the House of Lords was ended in 1999 by the House of Lords Act, but 92 members were
elected internally to remain until the next stage of the Lords reform process.
Public Bills
These are written by parliamentary counsel who specialise in drafting legisla-
tion. They are presented to Parliament by Government ministers and change the general
law of the whole country.
Private Members’ Bills
These are prepared by an individual backbench MP (someone
who is not a member of the Cabinet). MPs wanting to put forward a Bill have to enter
a ballot to win the right to do so, and then persuade the Government to allow enough
parliamentary time for the Bill to go through. Consequently very few such Bills become
Acts, and they tend to function more as a way of drawing attention to particular issues.
Some, however, have made important contributions to legislation, an example being
the Abortion Act 1967 which stemmed from a Private Member’s Bill put forward by
David Steel.
Private Bills
These are usually proposed by a local authority, public corporation or large
public company, and usually only affect that sponsor. An example might be a local author-
ity seeking the right to build a bridge or road.
The actual preparation of Bills is done by expert draftsmen known as parliamentary
counsel.
First reading
The title of the prepared Bill is read to the House of Commons. This is called the first read-
ing, and acts as a notification of the proposed measure.
Second reading
At the second reading, the proposals are debated fully, and may be amended, and members vote on whether the legislation should proceed. In practice, the whip system (party
officials whose job is to make sure MPs vote with their party) means that a Government
with a reasonable majority can almost always get its legislation through at this and sub-
sequent stages.
Committee stage
The Bill is then referred to a committee of the House of Commons for detailed examination, bearing in mind the points made during the debate. At this point further amendments
to the Bill may be made.
Report stage
The committee then reports back to the House, and any proposed amendments are
debated and voted upon.
Third reading
The Bill is re-presented to the House. There may be a short debate, and a vote on whether
to accept or reject the legislation as it stands.
House of Lords
The Bill then goes to the House of Lords, where it goes through a similar process of three
readings. If the House of Lords alters anything, the Bill returns to the Commons for further
consideration. The Commons then responds with agreement, reasons for disagreement or
proposals for alternative changes.
At one time legislation could not be passed without the agreement of both Houses,
which meant that the unelected House of Lords could block legislation put forward by
the elected House of Commons. The Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949 lay down special
procedures by which proposed legislation can go for Royal Assent without the approval of
the House of Lords after specified periods of time. These procedures are only rarely used,
because the House of Lords usually drops objections that are resisted by the Commons,
though their use has increased in recent years. Four Acts of Parliament have been passed
to date relying on the Parliament Act 1949:
● War Crimes Act 1991;
● European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999;
● Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000;
● Hunting Act 2004.
