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Procedure of Passing a Bill in British Parliament






Types of Bills: Public Bills: concern public policies; can be introduced in either of the Houses (except for the bills involving taxation and spending public money - these ones can be introduced only in the House of Commons) by a minister or a private member (MP) (than it is called a private member's bill); cannot be carried over from one session to the next one. Private Bills: concern the matters of individual, corporate or local interest.introduced through a petition, presented to Parliament by its promoter who is also responsible for its cost; can be carried over from one session to the next one. 4.2 LEGISLATIVE PROCEEDINGS

For a law to be enacted it must be approved by the Queen in Parliament. That is a Bill (a draft law) must be presented and go through all the necessary stages in both Houses of Parliament and the Queen must signify her approval (which is a formality). The Bill then becomes an Act and comes into force on the day in which it receives the Royal Assent, unless some other date is expressly provided.

Most Bills are public Bills involving measures relating to public policy. There are also private Bills which deal solely with matters of individual, corporate or local interest. Public Bills can be introduced by a Government minister or by a private member. Most public legislation is in practice sponsored by the Government.

Before a government Bill is finally drafted there is normally considerable consultation with professional bodies, voluntary organizations and other agencies interested in the subject matter. Proposals for legislative changes are sometimes set out in Government 'White Papers' which may be debated in Parliament before a Bill is introduced. From time to time consultative documents, sometimes called 'Green Papers', are published setting out for public discussion of major government proposals which are still at the formative stage.

Public Bills can be introduced in either House. As a rule, however, Government Bills likely to raise political controversy go through the Commons before the Lords. A Bill with a mainly financial purpose is nearly always introduced in the Commons, and a Bill involving taxation or the spending of public money must be based on resolutions agreed by the House, often after debate, before it can be introduced. The process of passing a public Bill is similar in both Houses of Parliament.

The various stages through which a Bill has to pass are as follows: first reading; second reading; committee; report; third reading. The stages follow at intervals of between one day and several weeks, depending on the nature of the Bill. In the House of Commons, the report and third reading are usually taken on the same day.

The first reading of a public Bill is a formality. The Bill may be presented and read for the first time as a result of the House agreeing to a motion for leave to introduce it, or it may simply be introduced, read for the first time and ordered to be read a second time. Once presented, it is printed and proceeds to a second reading.

The stage of second reading provides the first main occasion for a wide debate on the general principles of a Bill, including alternative methods of achieving its purposes and the means proposed for giving effect to its provisions. The Opposition may decide to vote against the Bill on its second reading, or to move an amendment to the motion that the Bill be read a second time.

When a Bill has passed its second reading, it is usually referred for detailed examination to a standing committee consisting of from 16 to 50 members. Occasionally the Bill may be referred to a committee of the whole House, which is the entire Commons sitting under another name. This is often the case with Bills of constitutional importance and with parts of Finance Bills which incorporate budget proposals. Very occasionally a Bill will go to a select committee, which has the power to call witnesses. The object of the committee stage is to study the details of a measure.

During the report stage the House considers the Bill as amended and makes any further amendments that may be necessary. The report is, in practice, very like the committee stage, except that only the amendments and not the clauses of the Bill are discussed.

At the third formal reading a Bill is reviewed in its final form, which includes the amendments made at earlier stages.

When the Bill has passed its third reading in the House of Commons, it is sent for consideration in the Lords. If the Bill originated in the Lords, it goes to the Commons after the third reading. If the second House amends the Bill, it must be returned to the House where it originated for consideration of the amendments. If it proves impossible to reach agreement, the Commons can make use of their powers under the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 to present a Bill originating in the House of Commons for Royal Assent after one year and in a new session even if the Lords' objections are maintained. The assent of the House of Lords is not essential, subject to certain conditions, in the case of 'money Bills'. Bills that deal only with taxation or expenditure must become law within one month of being sent to the Lords, whether or not the Lords have agreed to it, unless the Commons directs otherwise.

When a Bill has passed through all its parliamentary stages, it is sent to the Sovereign for Royal Assent. After this the Bill becomes law and is known as an Act of Parliament. The Royal Assent has not been refused since 1707.

At the beginning of each session private members in the Commons may introduce a Bill on one of the Fridays in the session specially allocated for unofficial Bills. Private members' Bills are not always debated owing to pressure on parliamentary time, and many of those which are debated proceed no further than second reading. But a few succeed in becoming law each session.

Private members' Bills may be introduced in the House of Lords at any time during the session, without notice. The time that can be given to them in the Commons is, however, strictly limited.

Private Bills are quite different from private members' Bills. While a private member's Bill is a general public Bill introduced by a member of either House who is not a member of the Government, a private Bill is legislation of a special kind conferring particular powers or benefits on private or sectional interests outside Parliament such as individual local authorities, private companies, nationalized industries or occasionally private individuals. Private Bills may be sometimes in conflict with the general law. A private Bill is introduced through a petition presented to Parliament by its promoter who will be responsible for its costs. Unlike public Bills, private Bills may be carried over from one session to the next.

The process of passing a public bill is similar in both Houses of Parliament: Stage 1: First Reading - a formal announcement of the bill (its title, name of the person who is responsible for it and the day of the Second Reading) with no debate. Stage 2: Second Reading - the House debates general principles of the bill and in most cases takes a vote. Stage 3: Committee Stage - a committee of MPs/peers studies the details of the bill thoroughly and votes on amendments to the bill.

4.3 Types of parliamentary committees:

select committee - controls the Executive by examining some aspects of administration and reports the results to the House; standing committee - examines public bills at the Committee Stage, sometimes also at the Second Reading and the Report Stage. In standing committee the balance of parties reflects that in the House as a whole joint committee - consists of the members of both Houses appointed to consider a particular issue or a particular bill. The proposal to send a bill to a joint committee comes from the House where the bill was originated. Stage 4: Report Stage - the House considers the proposed amendments and takes a vote. Stage 5: Third Reading - purely formal stage; the bill is reviewed and debated as a whole. Stage 6: The bill is sent to the other House for the same procedure. If the other House makes new amendments they will be considered by the House that originated the bill.Stage 7: Royal Assent - after both Houses have reached agreement on the bill, it is sent to the Queen for the Royal Assent and after it is signed by the Queen it becomes an Act of Parliament/Law (the Royal Assent has not been refused since 1707).

 

5.1 House of Lords Reform Perhaps the major constitutional event of the summer was the announcement by the Prime Minister in August that the Government’s House of Lords Reform Bill would be dropped. The Bill was introduced into the House of Commons in June 2012 and passed its second reading in July, after two days of debate. The Bill would have reformed the composition of the House of Lords such that, after a series of transitional periods, it would eventually have been composed of 360 elected members, 90 appointed members, 12 bishops and any additional ministerial members. Elected members would have been elected for one term only, but that term would have lasted for the lifetime of three Parliaments (i.e. 15 years). House of Lords elections were to take place according to the open list system (in Great Britain) and according to the single transferable vote system (in Northern Ireland). The Bill contained no provision seeking to alter the powers or functions of the House of Lords; the provisions of the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 would have remained in force; and the Government was insistent that the relationship between the two Houses of Parliament (Lords and Commons) would be unaffected by the reforms proposed to the Upper House’s composition.

The Government had published a Draft Bill on House of Lords reform in 2011 (this is noted at pp 34 and 660 of the book). The key differences between the proposals in the Draft Bill and those in the 2012 Bill are that in the former the proposed size of the reformed House was 300 members (compared with 450 members in the Bill) and that in the former it was proposed to use the STV system for the whole of the United Kingdom. Both the Draft Bill and the 2012 Bill shared the features that the Government saw no necessary link between reforming the House’s composition and reforming its powers, functions, or relationship to the Commons. The Draft Bill was the subject of withering attack by a Joint Select Committee appointed to undertake pre-legislative scrutiny (see HL 284/HC 1313 of 2010-12). An unofficially published minority report subjected the Government’s proposal to even more sustained assault.

Within the Coalition, appetite for Lords reform was clearly greater in the Liberal Democrat party than in the Conservative party. While the Bill received its second reading in the Commons in July, it was clear that any “programme motion” designed to timetable the Bill’s further passage in that House would fail. Backbench Tory MPs wanted to be able to talk the Bill out and to use the weapon of parliamentary time to make life exceptionally difficult for the Government. The Opposition, in principle in favor of Lords reform, was prepared to sit back and watch Tory and Lib Dem MPs tear into one another — certainly, Labour was not about to help out Lib Dems in need of overcoming Tory resistance to reform. The Government announced that it would withdraw its program motion and the Prime Minister undertook to his beleaguered Deputy to try to rally Tory backbenchers behind the Bill over the summer. When in August it became clear that he could not do this, he pulled the plug on the Bill.

There are two immediate consequences. The first is that the Liberal Democrats have indicated that they are to withdraw their support for the redrawing of constituency boundaries and for the reduction in the size of the Commons from 650 to 600 MPs (on which, see the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011). Political commentary suggests that, far from accelerating the break-up of the Coalition, this will actually bind it tighter, as the electoral experts seem to be of the view that it would be harder for the Conservatives to win an overall majority of seats at the next election if the Commons remains at 650 constituencies. The second immediate consequence is that House of Lo rds reform is dead, at least for the remainder of this Parliament. We got closer to it this time around than we have done at any point since the House of Lords Act 1999 was passed.

 

 

 
 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7 Composition of the government

British Government Parliamentary Government (The House of Commons

The House of Lords) Her Majesty’s Governmernt (the Cabinet) Local Government Her Majesty's Government /the Cabinet - the body of ministers responsible for the conduct of national affairs. The Cabinet consists of about 20 most important ministers. The majority is the members of the House of Commons, but there are also those from the House of Lords. The Cabinet normally meets during the parliamentary sittings for about 2 hours one or twice a week at 10, Downing Street (the Prime Minister's Residence).

The Cabinet is composed of 2 types of ministers: departmental ministers - they are in charge of Governmental Departments (health, education, etc.); they are usually called " Secretaries of State" or have a special title (e.g. the Chancellor of the Exchequer); non-departmental ministers - hold various traditional offices (e.g. the Paymaster General (министр по зарплате)) and are available to perform any duties that the prime Minister may wish to give them.

Functions of the Cabinet: final determination of the policy to be submitted to Parliament; the supreme control of the national executive power;

coordination of the work of all the Departments.

Prime Minister: After General Elections the leader of the majority party is appointed Prime Minister. He is, by tradition, the First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Services. He sits in the House of Commons and is an MP. His official residence is 10, Downing Street. He chooses all the other ministers and with the approval of the Queen forms the Cabinet. His duties are: to preside over the Cabinet and make changes in the Government; to supervise the work of the Departments; to speak in parliament in the most important bills and answer to Parliament for all the actions of the Government; to inform the Queen of the work of the Government; to make suggestions to the Queen for awards, positions, etc. The current Prime Minister is Gordon Brown (2007). His predecessor, Tony Blair, won 3 consecutive terms (in 1997, 2001, 2005).

Shadow Cabinet - is formed after General Elections by the party that comes second. This party forms the official opposition (now - the Conservative Party). The Shadow Cabinet reflects the Cabinet in structure and its main purpose is to challenge the Government's policies and actions.

Local Government: London as a capital has its own Assembly and an elected Mayor. In each county there exists a council that consists of an elected mayor and the Cabinet. So the system reflects the National Government (such system provides more effective decision-making at a local scale).

 


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