Legislative Process: Legislative Stages and Law-making within the two houses.

What are the stages of the legislative process

• First Reading

• Second reading

• Committee stage

• Report stage

• Third reading

• Assent

What happens during the first reading stage

• The first reading stage is the announcement that a particular bill has started the legislative process.

• At the first reading stage, the bill becomes available to be viewed and scrutinised by everyone.

What happens during the second reading stage

• there is a debate in the chamber over the bill and the members of the House of Lords or Commons decide if it should be accepted in principle.

• The case in favour will be outlined by a government minister, and then a member of the opposition will respond alongside backbenchers, and there will be a debate.

• Following a debate over the bill, a vote will take place, and if successful, then the bill will move forward. If the chamber votes against the bill, then it will be defeated.

What Happens during the committee stage

• A committee will consider the bill and examine it in detail.

• The committee will decide whether to make changes to, or remove, any clause within the bill and consider amendments to the bill proposed by the government or members of the House of Lords and Commons.

What happens during the report stage

• The report stage involves the discussion of amendments that have been made in the committee stage, and takes place in the main chambers of the House of Commons and Lords with all members of each House.

• The chamber will agree or reject the proposed amendments to the bill by voting and more amendments may be added.

What happens during the third reading (legislative stages 2)

• involves a discussion of the bill and what it contains.

• At the third reading stage, amendments are no longer made in the House of Commons.

• In the House of Lords, amendments can be made, but only if the amendments have not been previously considered in the earlier stages of the legislative process.

• After the discussion, the members of the chamber will vote on whether they approve the bill.

What happens during the consideration of the amendments in third stage

• After the third reading stage, the bill will return to the chamber where it began for the consideration of amendments. -The House of Lords and House of Commons will consider the amendments proposed by the other chamber, which they will accept or disagree with.

• A bill will go between both chambers until an agreement is reached over the wording of the bill.

• If an agreement cannot be reached, the bill may be abandoned, unless the Commons invokes the Parliament Acts.

What happens during the Royal Assent stage

• A bill must be approved by the monarch for the bill to become a law, termed an Act of Parliament.

• The agreement of the monarch gives royal assent to a bill, and is a formality (an action taken just to comply with convention or custom).

Parliament Acts

• The Parliament Act 1911 and Parliament Act 1949 allow the Commons to override the Lords after a delay.

  • This ensures the elected House can ultimately pass legislation without the Lords’ consent.

Exchange of amendments

• Both the House of Commons and House of Lords exchanging amendments to bills with one another is a key form of interaction between both chambers, and is termed ‘ping-pong’.

• The exchange of amendments takes place after both Houses have considered the bill, and requires both chambers to agree on amendments and final wording before it can become law.

The Salisbury Convention

States that the House of Lords cannot oppose legislation that is within the elected government’s manifesto. This includes attempting to vote against the bill during the second reading stage or introducing amendments that change the meaning of the bill from how it was in the government manifesto.

Financial legislation

• The House of Commons has greater power than the House of Lords when making financial laws.

• The Parliament Act 1911 prevents the Lords from amending or blocking money bills, which relate to taxation and government spending.

  • The Finance Act 2018 was financial legislation which Parliament passed in March 2018 without the House of Lords making amendments.

Reasonable timing

• There is a convention that the House of Lords will review laws relating to government policies within a reasonable period of time.

  • The House of Lords took a long time to start the committee stage of the 2002 Animal Health Bill which led to a four- month delay for it to become law.

the HoL on Secondary legislation

• The House of Lords has the power to reject secondary legislation (laws created by ministers that add details to existing Acts of Parliament).

• However, there is a convention that the House of Lords should not reject secondary legislation.

  • Secondary legislation amends existing laws to ensure they can operate practically and better in society.

• The House of Lords has rarely stopped secondary legislation in the past, but did when voting against cutting tax credits as part of the Tax Credits Regulations 2015 Act.

The Strathclyde Review

• The Strathclyde Review in 2015 reviewed the relationship between the House of Commons and House of Lords.

• The review recommended that the House of Lords should not be able to stop secondary legislation passing, but instead ask the House of Commons to rethink its proposal.

• The Strathclyde review called for a review into whether secondary legislation could only be passed through the House of Commons’ law-making process.

• These proposals have not been fully implemented, so conventions still apply.