how law are made in great britain

8/2/2019 How Law Are Made in Great Britain

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Opposition.

What does a Standing Committee do?

A Standing Committee assesses and approves each clause of a bill.It doesnot discuss the overall purpose of a bill.

Each member of a StandingCommittee is allowed to propose an amendment to clauses in the bill.

The government does not have to accept amendments, and despite the input ofa Standing Committee, a bill, after the Committee Stage may be the same as atthe time of the Second Reading. Governments with a large parliamentarymajority and with a disciplined Whip structure, can all but guarantee that its billwill be voted for. However, a government may well accept amendments to a billsimply because a Standing Committee may have suggested an improvement thatthe government simply did not see. The power to do this rests with thegovernment and not with the Standing Committee. Some have argued that this

government power makes a Standing Committee and its work redundant.

However, this procedure is a fundamental part of the parliamentary set-up and isseen as part of the whole democratic structure of Parliament and an insuranceagainst governments doing what they want to do. Standing Committees act as areservoir of expertise than can be used constructively by a government if onlythat it can discuss in clinical detail a bill and suggest changes that, according tothe Committee, will enhance the bill.

A government might accept minor changes to a bill. Major changes are adifferent matter. These might only be forced on a government if sufficient

government backbenchers combine with the Opposition. In this scenario, thegovernment might be faced with the embarrassment of its bill being defeated inthe House. This would clearly undermine its authority. With the current hugeparliamentary majority of the Blair government in 2003, this is extremely unlikelyto occur.

On rare occasions, the Standing Committee stage might be expanded. This isdone when this examination of a bill is taken on the floor. This is when aCommittee of the Whole House is convened to give all MPs the opportunity toexpress their views on a bill. This happens rarely as it is a time-consumingprocess. Major finance bill and proposed constitutional changes have led to

Committees of the Whole House being instigated in the past.

The whole committee stage is meant to be a thorough examination of a bill and itis the longest part of the process. Once it has ended, the process moves on tothe Report Stage.

This stage is also known as The Consideration. This is a detailed examination ofthe bill by all MPs, including amendments if they have been suggested at the


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Committee stage. New amendments can be introduced at this stage. This isusually done by the government in response to amendments suggested at theCommittee stage. By doing this, the government can claim to have listened to theproposed amendments to a bill. It can also claim to still be in charge of the bill asit has proposed the amendments! The Report Stage can last from 30 minutes to

several days. From here, the bill returns for its Third Reading.

The Third Reading is the final part of the debate regarding the bill within theHouse of Commons. MPs discuss the overall content of the amended bill. Fromhere the bill automatically moves onto the House of Lords.

Under its current structure, the Lords operate in broadly the same way as theHouse of Commons. The First Reading in the Lordsis, as in the Commons, aformal introduction. A major debate on the bill occurs at the Second Reading.The Lords continue to follow the pattern of the Commons with a CommitteeStage, followed by the Report Stage and then a concluding Third Reading.

However, though there are many similarities in the way both Houses proceedwith regards to the way bills are passed, there are also a number of importantdifferences.

The Lords Committee Stage is usually held on the floor of the Lords itself. In thisway, any peer may put forward amendments and comment about the bill.

Amendments can be made in the Lords at the Third Reading. This is usuallydone to clarify any amendments the government has agreed to make to its bill.If the bill is voted for in the Lords, it is immediately sent for Royal Assent.

However, if any amendments have been made in the Lords, the bill is returned tothe Commons which debates each amendment the Lords have made. TheCommons can:

Accept the amendmentAmend the Lords amendmentCompletely replace aLords amendment with one of its ownReject a Lords amendment.If any of the last three are done in the Commons, the bill returns to the Lords withan explanation as to why the government has taken the course of action it has.This is a statement of reasons. The Lords can accept this and pass the bill.However, it can also reject the statement of reasons. When this happens, the

amendments concerned (and therefore the bill itself) goes to and from theCommons and Lords until an acceptable compromise is reached. If both Housesfail to agree on their differences, the bill dies. This is an extremely rare event andhas only happened on very infrequent occasions since 1945.

There are two major restrictions on the Lords ability to kill of a bill.
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1) The Lords may not delay a bill for more than one parliamentary session. A billlost in the Lords in one session but then passed by the Commons in the nextparliamentary session, would automatically receive the Royal Assent regardlessof whether the Lords opposed it in that session.

2) The Lords does not deal with any "Money Bills". These pass through the Lordswithout discussion.

This theoretical ability of the Lords to kill off a bill or even to hinder its passinghas highlighted a major constitutional issue.

To some, the Lords acts as an insurance against an over-dominant governmentbased in the Commons. Those in the Lords are usually older than MPs and havethe worldly experience (usually of politics) to make a positive input into themaking and creating of new laws. Their experience is usually greater than themajority of MPs in the Commons and their perceived wisdom is a much-needed

stabilising factor in British politics.

To others, the Lords are an unelected and, therefore, an undemocratic relic fromanother time that undermine the whole concept ofrepresentative democracy. Ifan elected government, so the argument goes, decides to pursue a certainpolicy, an electoral victory gives it the right to do so and the Lords have no rightto interfere in this process.

The current projected reform of the Lords is still being considered. In February2003, Tony Blair argued that a fully appointed Lords would allow a cross-sectionof experts to be appointed to the second chamber. Such experts would offer a

serious scrutiny of government bills and society as a whole would only benefitfrom this. This approach has been soundly criticised by many who argue that anappointed Lords would simply pass whatever the government wanted to bepassed and would offer no scrutiny whatsoever to government bills. One of themajor critics of an appointed Lords was the then Leader of the House, RobinCook, a member of the Cabinet, who was to resign over the government'sdecision to attack Iraq.

After the First Reading, Second Reading, Committee Stage and Third Reading inthe Commons and the input by the Lords, a bill (if it has passed through all thestages) is ready for the Royal Assent.

In this process, the monarch formally signifies assent to the bill so that itbecomes an act and part of the law of the land. The Queen uses Norman Frenchas part of tradition "La Reyne le veult" ("The Queen wishes it"). The last timethe monarch refused to give Royal Assent was in 1707 with Queen Anne. It is allbut impossible to imagine a situation whereby the Queen would refuse to giveRoyal Assent to a bill that has gone through such a thorough examination. Sucha refusal would spark off a major constitutional crisis.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/democracy.htmhttp://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Lords_reforms.htmhttp://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/cabinet_and_british_politics.htmhttp://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/democracy.htmhttp://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Lords_reforms.htmhttp://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/cabinet_and_british_politics.htm


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An act usually has a date or dates in its text as to when it will be implemented (orwhen parts of it will be implemented if it is a multi-layered act). Some acts have aCommencement Order in them to activate it, or parts of it. The implementation ofthat act means that it is part of the law of the land from that date

how law are made in great britain

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