2.

1 The legislative process

UK Parliament
1.​ UK Parliament consists of
-​ The House of Commons
-​ The House of Lords
-​ The Queen

Pre-legislative process:
1.​ Green Papers (consultative document): issue when the government is unsure what law
to introduce so that interest parties can comment on it.
-​ consider fully the views of stakeholders and suggest any necessary change.
​ ​ ​
2.​ White Papers: issue when government have a firm proposals for new law
-​ Considered the view received during Green Paper consultation
-​ If Gov have firm view on a topic, go straight to issuing a White Paper

Benefits of Consultation (before new law is framed)

-​ Allow time for mature consideration
-​ Prevent unworkable law made through rushing (Dangerous Dogs Act 1991)

3.​ Bills:
-​ Government bills: Introduced by government
-​ More likely to become law as government business takes priority in Parliament
-​ Initially drafted by lawyers in Parliamentary Counsel to the Treasury, the
government department will instruct the content and effect of the proposed law.
-​ Must use correct legal wording to ensure precise and comprehensive.
-​ Government will set out a timetable to introduce the draft Bills.

-​ Private Member’s Bills: Introduced by individual MPs

-​ 20 private MPs will be balloted (vote secretly) to present their bills
-​ Rarely become law due to the limited time for debate
-​ Ten-Minute Rule - backbenchers can try to make a speech of up to 10
minutes supporting the introduction of Bill.
-​ Example of Private Members’ Bills that became law:
-​ The Abortion Act 1967, legalised abortion in the UK

-​ Public Bills: Affecting the whole country or large section of it.

-​ Eg. Constitutional Reform Act 2015, Legal Service Act 2007

-​ Private Bills: Only affect certain individual or companies

-​ Eg. University College London Act 1996.
Process In Parliament:
(usually started in House Of Common)
4.​ First Reading
-​ Formal procedure
-​ Read out: Name & Main aims of the Bill
-​ No discussion and no vote

5.​ Second Reading

-​ Main debate
-​ MPs deliberate the principle behind the Bill
-​ Debate focus on the main principle, rather than smaller details
-​ The Speaker controls all debates, no one may speak without being called on by
the Speaker (MPs must catch Speaker’s eye to speak)
-​ Vote held in the end of debate
1.​ Verbal vote
-​ The Speaker ask the MPs as a whole how they vote
-​ The members shout out ‘Aye’ or ‘No’
-​ If result is clear, not need formal vote
2.​ Formal vote
-​ Only needed if verbal vote have unclear or inconclusive result
-​ MPs leave the Chamber, walk back one of two voting doors on
either side of Chamber
-​ Tellers make a list of members voting and count up
-​ Majority wins

6.​ Committee Stage

-​ Examine each clause in detail
-​ Undertaken by standing committee of MPs, chosen specifically for the Bill
-​ MPs are usually with a special interest or knowledge for the subject of the BIll
-​ For Finance Bills, whole House sits in committee
-​ Amendments to various words and clauses being voted on and passed in this
stage

7.​ Report Stage

-​ Committee reports the amendment that should be done
-​ Amendments will be debated in the House (accept?reject?further amendments?)

8.​ Third Reading

-​ The final vote on the Bill
-​ Usually no debate or vote as unlikely to fail
9.​ The House Of Lord
-​ Similar stages go through again
-​ ‘Ping-pong’ effect
-​ If HOL make amendment > send back to HOC to consider
-​ If HOC reject the amendment > send back to HOL for reconsideration
-​ If HOL insist the amendment > send back to HOC for reconsideration
-​ The Parliament Act 1911 and 1949
-​ HOL have limited power to reject a Bill
-​ HOL is not an elected body, its function is to check the law instead to
rejecting the law
-​ Will of HOC will eventually prevail as it has elected representatives
-​ Example of law that bypass HOL:
1.​ The War Crime Acts 1991
2.​ The European Parliamentary Election Act 1999
3.​ The Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000
10.​Royal Assent
-​ The final stage
-​ The monarch gave approval to the Bill to become an Act of Parliament
-​ Just for formality under the Royal Assent Act 1967
-​ The monarch will only have short title

11.​Commencement of an Act
-​ The Act of Parliament comes into force on midnight of that day, unless date has
been set
-​ A trend that Act of Parliament not be implemented immediately
-​ The Act states the date when it will commence
-​ Or passes responsibility to a government minister to set commencement date for
an Act (delegated legislation)
-​ Different section of act brought into effect in different times
1.​ Uncertainty
2.​ Difficult to discover and unaware of the newly formed Act
Advantages & Disadvantages of law making in Parliament

1.​ Advantages: (democracy detail delegated legislation certain control discuss)

-​ Act is made by elected representatives
-​ Parliament can reform whole areas of law in one new Act
-​ Fraud Act 2006 - Parliament abolished all the old offences and created a
newer structure of offences.
-​ Judge can only change the law in very small area,as they can only rule on
the point of law in the case they decide
-​ Acts of parliament can set broad policies and delegate power to others to make
detailed regulations - allows for greater detail
-​ thoroughly discussed and scrutinised - acts are made properly
-​ Acts of Parliament are certain and cannot be challenged by judges

2.​ Disadvantages: (reform amend make law - time and complicated x force)
-​ Do not always have the time to deal with proposed reforms
-​ Example of law awaiting reform: law on assaults & other non-fatal
offences against the person
-​ Reform is needed because
-​ Old law is difficult to understand
-​ Does not always cover modern situations
-​ Government published a draft Bill about the reform, but this area of law
still not been reformed
-​ The process can take several months - time consuming
-​ Very few Private Members’ Bills become law
-​ Government is in control of the parliamentary timetable
-​ Private Members’ Bills can be easily voted out as they have the
minority seats
-​ Long and complicated
-​ Difficult to understand by lawyers and public
-​ Many appeal cases are to interpret the words of an Act.
-​ Law become more complicated where one Act amends an earlier Act
-​ The amendments are not compile together, need to consult many Acts to
understand the acts
-​ An Act will not come into force until a later date
-​ Need to consult several documents to find exactly when the relevant part
of the Act came into force.
2.2 Parliamentary supremacy (sovereignty)

Dicey definition of parliamentary supremacy

1.​ Parliament can legislate any subject matter
2.​ No Parliament can be bound by any previous Parliament
3.​ No other body has the right to override or set aside an Act of Parliament
**This rule applies even if Acts of Parliament are made with incorrect information.

Limitations on parliamentary supremacy

The main limitations are through:
1.​ The effect of the Human Rights Act 1998
-​ All the Act of Parliament have to be compatible with ECHR
-​ HRA - the court have the power to declare an Act incompatible with the
Convention
-​ H v Mental Health Review Tribunal (not the patient but the State to justify the
continuing detention)
-​ The court made a declaration that the Mental Health Act 1983 was
incompatible with HRA, and parliament changed the law to give effect to
the HRA)

2.​ Devolution
-​ The Scotland Act 1998 & the Government of Wales Act 1998
-​ Power of making law without requiring the approval form Westminster
Parliament is devolved to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Parliament.
-​ Parliament supremacy has been lost in this area.

3.​ EU membership
-​ Before leaving EU, parliament loss sovereignty as EU law took priority over UK
Law
-​ By leaving the EU the Parliament is regaining sovereignty
2.3 Influences on Parliament

1.​ Political pressure

-​ Party’s manifesto
-​ A list of policies and suggested reforms the political parties would carry
out if elected to become the next GOV (publish when there is general
election)
-​ Government
-​ The party that has the most members elected to the House of Commons
-​ This party has the whole life (5yrs) of Parliament to introduce the reforms
in the manifesto
-​ The GOV have the major say on which new laws are put before Parliament for
debate in any session of Parliament
-​ The opposition parties in Parliament hold the GOV to account when it introduces
its proposals, to ensure the manifesto are implemented and in the way GOV
outlined
-​ Debates in Parliamentary Committees to amend the proposed law (ensure the
law are workable and not too extreme)
-​ Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949
-​ House of Lords cannot block laws passed by House of Commons
indefinitely
-​ Effect of Salisbury Convention
-​ House of Lords cannot block laws passed by House of Commons which is
based on the manifesto by the GOV

Advantages Disadvantages

Proposals for reform are ready and published in a Changes of laws can be costly and open
manifesto - GOV reaches its aims to criticism - lead to piecemeal reform if
different party is elected and like to make
change

Make the law-making process efficient - if GOV have Large majority of seats in the House of
majority of seats in HoC, can pass its policy proposal Commons can force through its policy
easier proposals

Public know the broad proposals of each political If government has small majority –
party before the election - have a choice to choose the difficult to achieve changes
set of proposals and law reforms

Proposed changes to laws will be debated - Suggestions made by experts in the HoL
improvement to initial proposals can be suggested do not have to be accepted by HoC

Members of the House of Lords have expertise in a If a crisis occurs, government’s focus
wide range of topics - carry considerable weight, may differ from its manifesto - e.g.
non-political COVID-19 pandemic
 2.​ Public opinion

1.​ Media (social media)

2.​ Pressure group
3.​ MP
4.​ Government Minster
5.​ Government department
6.​ System of online petitions (for individuals to have their concern heard)
-​ Public members are able to petition the HOC and press for specific action
from the government
-​ The Petition Committee will either
-​ Ask for more information from the petitioner
-​ Ask the parliamentary committee to review on the topic
-​ Forward the issue for debate in parliament if the threshold of
100000 signatures is achieved
-​ If public opinion is strong enough, the government may bow to their
opinion

Advantages Disadvantages

May express opinion to an MP Unreasonable opinions or unworkable demands

May bring campaign to a wider audience Government may not act on a petition

Unlikely to be successful in introducing a Private

Members’ Bill to act on public opinion
 3.​ Pressure groups

-​ Sectional Pressure Group (工会，争取权益）

-​ Cause Pressure Group（施压团体，要求某个课题被关注）

Make government reconsider certain area of law through:

-​ Campaign
-​ Lobbying - trying to persuade government ministers or individual MPs to support a
pressure group cause (unlikely to succeed if a backbench MP uses Private Members’
Bills to raise the issue in parliament)
***Evaluation:
-​ Lobbying often takes years for the government to respond
-​ Dunblane massacre 1990 （持枪男人闯进Dunblane学校杀了16名孩童和老师）
-​ Pressure group called ‘Snowdrop’ was issued for the banning of handguns
-​ Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997 banned the private ownership of most
handguns

Advantages Disadvantages

Wide range of issues can be drawn to the Disrupt the general public if a strike action is
attention called by a pressure group.

Often raise important issues Conflicting interests and campaigns of

different parties.

Experts
 4.​ Media

-​ Play a large role in representing and influencing the public

-​ A free press able to criticise government policy or demand government action
-​ Media Campaign:
-​ ‘Snowdrop’(Campaign gunman attack school children and teachers) > Firearm
(Amendment) Act 1996
-​ ‘Dangerous Dog’ (dog attack children and adults) > Dangerous Dog Act 1991
-​ ‘Double-jeopardy’ rule (tried one more time when a stronger evidence come in) >
Criminal Justice Act 2003

Advantages Disadvantages

Raise awareness of public concern Some do not remain politically neutral

Raise concern about individual incidents No regulation on the expression of views -

causes misuse of sensitive topics

Can inform and raise public awareness – Some newspapers sensationalise an issue to
encourage the government to form policy, act expand readership - part of media
and legislate manipulation on the news
2.4 Law Commission - Role and Composition

Law Commission
-​ set up by Law Commission Act 1965
-​ must report to parliament annually on Government progress in implementing reports

Their Works:
1.​ Select a topic or the topic referred by government
2.​ Research the area of law that need to be reform
3.​ Publish a consultation papers (Green & White Papers)
4.​ Draws up proposals for reform
5.​ Creates draft Bills

Roles (s.3 Law Commission Act 1965)

-​ Repeal of Existing Law
-​ Law Commission will prepare a Repeals Bill for parliament to consider
-​ ‘Tidying-up’ of the statute book makes law more accessible.

-​ Consolidation
-​ Draw all the small part of total law together in one Act
-​ Unsuccessful example - Criminal Justice Act 2003 > Legal Aid, Sentencing, and
Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (4 in 1 causing it to be confusing）

-​ Codification
-​ Bringing together all the law on a topic into 1 single Act (from both statutory and
judicial precedent)
-​ Make the law more understandable, consistent, and certain.

Success of the Law Commission

In Codification
-​ Has not achieved its original idea of codification, but been successful in some areas of
law
In Consolidation
-​ In first 10 years - 85% of suggested proposals are enacted by Parliament
-​ Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, Supply of goods and services Act 1982
-​ In subsequent years - less successful - only 50% its suggestions have become law
-​ Due to lack of parliamentary time
-​ lack of interest by Parliament in technical law reform
-​ Successful Reforms: The Fraud Act 2006, Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015
Advantages Disadvantages

Researched by legal experts Government is not bound to consult the Law

Commission

Politically independent Some recommendations might not be implemented

Recommendations are based on Parliament concentrate on broad policy areas rather

thorough research than ‘purely’ legal issues

Draft Bills are prepared and Parliament has to wait for the government to act (the
presented to Parliament failure of Parliament to implement reforms)

Law is easier to find and understand

Old and irrelevant laws are removed