The Nature Of UK Legislation

Question 1

What are private bills?

Answer 1

• they concern private organisations or local authorities that want to take action on something that the law currently forbids.
• the bills are not usually considered by the whole house but by committees.
• it is rare for any publicity to come of these, and only the members of the public that are involved are required to give evidence.

Question 2

What is a public bill?

Answer 2

• A bill presented by the government that do not expect much obstruction at all
• around a year before drafting and announcing the bill, it will be in the ‘white paper stage’
• white paper stage is when the proposal is summarised and a debate then vote is taken in parliament.
• occasionally, the bill may be dropped even at this stage if there are serious concerns.

Question 3

How are the Private Members’ Bills selected?

Answer 3

• Every year, MPs or Peers (members) enter their names into a ballot. 20 will be chosen and guaranteed a reading. Most of these time the first seven are the ones that are passed into legislation.
  ~the ballot however offers the best chance at becoming an act of parliament because they receive priority for debate
• ten minute rule bills are mainly ways of voicing opinions on a topic or of an aspect of a current piece of legislation. This is because they only have ten minutes to present their point, and it can be easily opposed my any member by shouting ‘oppose’
• Members are also allowed to announce their bill by ‘presentation’ they must give notice before they are able to do this and when they present it, they have to speak about it neutrally.

Question 4

What is a private member bill?

Answer 4

Bills that are presented by groups of or individual MPs or Peers.

Question 5

What are the stages in the legislative process?

Answer 5

The first reading, the second reading, the committee stage and the report stage, the third reading, consideration of amendments, then royal assent.

Question 6

What occurs during the First reading?

Answer 6

• The bill is formally introduced to either chamber
• there is no judgement on it or debate as it is just being announced to be entered into the process.

Question 7

What occurs during the second reading?

Answer 7

-the proposer of the bill enters into details of their bill and is open to debate
-this is where PMBs normally stop but Public Bills are rarely defeated.
-public bills have only been defeated at this stage twice since 1945.

Question 8

What occurs in the Committee Stage?

Answer 8

• a Public Bill Committee made up of around 50 MPs will debate and consider each clause of the bill and suggest amendments.
  -The members in this match the weight of parties in the whole house. Adding on the party whips, it can be said that the government has a high level of control on this process.
• Finance bills and major constitutional ones are delegated to the whole house because they are too important for a smaller committee.

Question 9

What happens during the report stage?

Answer 9

• The public bill committee reports the conclusion to the committee stage to the whole HoC.
• The HoC will have a whole chamber vote.
• At this stage, the amendments may be accepted, rejected or altered by other MPs
• the bill gets determined appropriately by EVEL so appropriate MPs are able to vote.

Question 10

What occurs during the Third Reading?

Answer 10

• If the bill passes the report stage, the final version of the bill is presented and debated again before final vote of the whole chamber.
• If the bill started in one House of Commons, it is then passed onto the House of Lords and vice versa. The bill will continue through the whole process once again.
• if the HoL in this next stage has any amendments, the bill must be passed back to the HoC before it can be passed back to continue.

Question 11

What is Royal assent?

Answer 11

When both chambers of parliament have passed the bill, the monarch is required to sign it so it becomes an official Act of Parliament.