AB I L LTO
Make provision with respect to …
BE IT ENACTED by the Queen's most Excellent
Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the
Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this
present Parliament assembled, and by the authority
of the same, as follows:- …Crown Copyright 2000
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As can be deduced from the first
sequence,
new
"laws" can result
from decisions made by courts
of law -of a sufficient seniority-
and from the parliamentary process.
This sequence is dedicated to the parliamentary
process of making new laws,
from the idea and the first draft
to the final Act of Parliament.
What must be born in mind here is that
suggested legislation should in principle be agreed to
in the same terms and in the same legislature
by both Houses.
When a new cabinet
starts in office,
it usually brings along promises
made by the political party during the campaign,
which has frequently been developed
in its government
manifesto.
The first task of a government will therefore to introduce bills in Parliament that will reflect these concerns.
the Commons,
or
the Lords.
When new legislation is desired in the
course of a legislature,
the government will probably prepare
the ground with either
a White
Paper ( a kind
of declaration of intent )
or
a Green
Paper ( where reactions are sought for ).
Neither is compulsory.
First reading: the draft bill (or first text ) is presented and approval sought for further examination. This step is most of the time a mere formality, particularly after general elections if the ideas or intent were in the leading party's manifesto.
Second reading : the whole House is asked by a senior minister to accept a thorough and complete study of the bill.
The main principles are debated and if approved of, the details of the bill are left for the Committees to examine.
Committee stage : A group of specialist MPs (about 50 for permanent committees) is asked to go through the detail and fine print of the bill, to suggest amendments (the term may refer to modifications, or deletions) and to report to the house. For more about joint committees
Report Stage :The bill is once again presented to the house and minor amendments can be brought in the course of the third and supposedly final reading.
Third reading :No major amendment can be brought forward here. But debate may still be fierce sometimes.
Once the house has approved of the
bill,
it is sent to the
other house
and is examined through a very similar
process.
If the bill gets approval from
both
houses in the same words,
Royal
Assent ends the whole process.
The bill then becomes an Act of Parliament.
It is published
by Her
Majesty's Stationary Office (HMSO)
and is part of the law
of the land.
Note that this over simplistic description is wrong in many regards for want of developments.
For example, bills can also originate from "private members" of either house.Also note that it does not take into account any obstacle - be it technical or political - that a bill in progress may encounter.
For instance, the House of Lords retains a power to delay legislation for one year in many fields.
The following site will provide you with more information on the bills and the amendments, and their outcomes.
But are we not more interested here in successful bills rather than failed legislation?
The next step
will take us to specific legislation
resulting from
a process that gives legislative powers to the countries of the UK
under the
authority of the British Parliament.
GRAMMAR
Find
the appropriate tense and form for the verbs in parentheses
You may also print
the text of the quizz
and
work by yourself
before checking the results online
or in
text
form.
Vocabulary
Click for Quizz
What do you remember?
Click for Quizz
Want to know more?
Parliament has produced a nice guide to help students around the world.
Click here for access to its search
engine
Links
For an example of the road followed by a specific bill - here The Local Government Act 2000 .
Notice the various steps of the process featured on this official document.
For the full text of the Act.
One of the bills, here the Lords' version Note that the Commons' is also available on the House of Commons website.
Also very useful are the explanatory notes .
You will notice that a White paper was published by the government on the issue.
That the Commons and the Lords worked together to agree on a joint text ( joint committee).
Note that even though it has NOT been denied to a bill since the early 18th century, Royal Assent is featured at the very beginning of the final Act.