Parliament Explained: Primary legislation – Commons procedure

What do you already know?

What do you think you know about:

- the law?- Parliament’s role?- the role of the courts?- Government bills?

…and what do you want to know?

Session aim?

To give you the knowledge you need to understand the legislative process, in particular the input and participation required from Ministers and what departmental staff can do (and avoid doing) to assist the various processes work smoothly.

Types of Government Bills

Three flavours:• Major bill reflecting manifesto pledge &

Queen’s Speech

• ‘Problem-solving’ reactive bill

• Technical bill

Other sorts of Bills

Two and a half more flavours:

• Private Members’ Bills

• Private Bills

• Hybrid Bills

Government advantagesS.O. No. 14(1)

Save as provided in this order, government business shall have precedence at every sitting.

S.O. 83A(6)A programme motion may provide for the allocation of

time for any proceedings on a bill.

Election 2015A small numerical advantage.

Stages of a bill• Green paper• White paper• Election manifesto• Queen’s Speech• Draft Bill• Pre-legislative scrutiny• Presentation or First Reading• Second Reading• Committee stage or Line-by-line• Consideration or Report• Third Reading• In the Lords (may start in that House) • Lords Amendments or Ping-Pong• Royal Assent• Implementation• Orders and regulations• Post-legislative scrutiny

Stages of a bill• Green paper• White paper• Election manifesto• Queen’s Speech• Draft Bill• Pre-legislative scrutiny• Presentation or First Reading• Second Reading• Committee stage or Line-by-line• Consideration or Report• Third Reading• In the Lords (may start in that House) • Lords Amendments or Ping-Pong• Royal Assent• Implementation• Orders and regulations• Post-legislative scrutiny

An optimist might say “look how transparent and open and consultative and collaborative”, a cynic might say “how cunning to draw out the arguments, hone your rebuttals, and be able to say - when time really matters – ‘oh we dealt with all that in the consultation’ ”

During passage through the House is when the whips want efficiency and iron-clad certainty over ‘how long’ and ‘when’ – as it all needs juggling with everything else

This is actually a mystery to me … This is really truly a mystery to everyone“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 …”Nobody cares …….

In the Commons• Presentation or First Reading• Second Reading

• Money, Ways and Means, Programme

• Committee• Further Programme, Evidence, line-byline

• Consideration or Report• Further programme

• Third Reading• Lords Messages or ‘Ping-pong’• Royal Assent

First & second reading• Presentation or First Reading

• ‘Here is the Bill’

• Second Reading• Broad debate of the principles of the bill, including

what’s in it and what’s not• Can table a ‘reasoned’ amendment (an objection too

big for an amendment in committee, but not simply voting against second reading) (in fact this is about more about stealing the initiative in debate …) • Often followed by motions on ‘Money’, ‘Ways and

Means’ and ‘Programming’…

Committee stage• Huge and tiny bills dealt with by ‘Committee of

the Whole House’ in the Chamber• Mid-spectrum bills go to ‘Public Bill

Committees’ (18-22 members meeting like the House in miniature – mostly about efficient use of time)

• Committees can take oral evidence• ‘Programmimng’ sets the ‘out-date’.

Committee stage (cont)• The committee stage is about considering

amendments and validating (or not) the existing text

• Amendments come in two flavours:• Opposition – ‘we hate this bit’• Government – ‘we forgot this bit’

• The clerk’s main job is “selection and grouping” (and preserving the mystery about how this works …)

• When the knife falls, the talking stops …

Committee stage – dooze‘n’ donce• Do be nice to the clerk• Don’t annoy the chair• Do write timely, succinct and accurate notes for

your Minister• … don’t wave them, throw them or try and pass

them directly• Do feel free to make suggestions about

selection and grouping (via counsel)• … don’t be offended if these are ignored

English votes for English LawsEVEL … simple

◦ Bills and parts of Bills certified by the Speaker as applying only to England (or England and Wales, or England, Wales and Northern Ireland) – if voted on – have to command a majority of the Members representing those seats as well as an overall majority to be passed.

◦ New clauses or amendments that apply in this way, or have

this effect on existing parts of the Bill, must be considered by, and consented to, by a ‘legislative grand committee’ consisting only of Members representing the relevant seats before they are considered and decided by the House as a whole.

◦ Making this work, and providing for all foreseeable

eventualities, takes 55 pages of amended and new standing orders

Consideration or report• Opportunity for the whole House to consider

what the committee did to the Bill• Opportunity for:

• the Government to:• honour commitments made in committee• reverse any unexpected defeats (probably too soon)

• the Opposition to re-run its ‘big’ debates• anyone to ambush the Bill with a ‘commonsense’

amendment and 100+ names from all sides (far easier to sway a crowd than move a committee)• …then Third Reading

Questions?