Journey of a piece of legislation, types of legislation and changes to legislative process over time

Green

Witches

Kill

Fairies

So

Crazy

Runners

Turn

Over

Rules

Green paper

White paper

Kings’ speech

First reading

second reading

Committee stage

Report stage

Third Reading

Other house

Royal assent

Green paper

• Broad idea

White paper

• First draft

Step 1

• King’s speech

  • Legislative agenda read by the monarch at the opening of a new Plmtary term

Step 2

• First reading

  • Introduced to the house

Step 3

• Second reading

  • Full debate and vote in the initial house

Step 4

• Committee stage

  • Scrutinised in detail by the Public Bill Committee (in Lords committee of the full chamber)

Step 5

• Report stage

  • Committee report back to the house with amendment considerations

Step 6

• Third reading

  • Final vote on the amended bill

Step 7

• Other chamber

  • Same stages in the other chamber

  • Sometimes Plmtary ping-pong

Step 8

• Royal assent

  • Bill agreed by both chambers and the monarch signs it into law

% of 2015-2024 bills originating in HoL

24%

% of Oct-Nov 2019 bills introduced by HoL

81% due to deadlock with Brexit

Gov’t losing a bill at 2nd reading

• 2 times since 1945

Example of Plmtary ping-pong

2024 Safety of Rwanda Act

Last bill not to gain royal assent

• 1708 — Scottish Militia Bill

  • Queen Anne rejected

Electronic voting on bills

• Was used in COVID and made it quicker

  • But was rejected

4 types of legislation

1. Primary

2. Secondary

3. Statutory instruments

4. Orders-in-council

Primary legislation

• Act of Plmt

Doctrine of implied repeal

• If Primary Legislation conflicts with earlier legislation it automatically takes precedence over it

2011 Charities Act

• Delegates power of deciding who is/isn’t a charity to Charities Commission

Secondary legislation

• Made by person/body delegated power by plmt to make SL

Statutory instrument

• Created by Members of Cabinet to delegate to another person/body

• Scrutinised by Plmt

Orders-in-council

• Use of Royal Prerogative powers

  • E.g. dissolving Plmt, appt of Privy Counsellors

Negative resolution procedure

• SI laid before Plmt for 40 days

• Automatically passes if neither house objects to it

1969 number of SIs

942

2 uses of SIs to pass major legislation

1. Defining ‘serious disruption’ in Serious Disruption Prevention Orders Act

2. Coronavirus Act

Salisbury Convention during Coalition

• Difficult as coalition was amalgamation of manifestos so SC didn’t operate in same way

Breach of financial privilege?

• 2015 — HoL delayed plans to reduce amount poorer citizens could receive in tax credits

• Accused of breaking Financial Privilege BUT they voted against SI not a finance bill

2015 — Grand Committee EVEL

• Established additional committee stage for 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 MPs to attend if a bill is defined as 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 only by speaker

  • Scrapped in 2021

Example of SNP blocking 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿-only issue

• 2016 — voted not to allow councils to extend Sunday Trading Hours but wouldn’t affect 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 councils

  • Abstention from SNP would have passed the bill

  • Could do this as other parts of the bill would affect 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Assited Dying Bill EVEL

• SNP abstained

• NI MPs did vote because it might have an indirect impact on NI — possibly legislative change

1991-2015 — LSE number of skeleton bills introduced per year

0.7

2016-2023 — LSE number of skeleton bills introduced per year

2.1