Legislation

• Private legislation: when backbench MPs develop their own legislation. They can be introduced through a ballot, through a ten-minute rule or through presentation
• 2017-2019 a total of 15 private members’ bills achieved royal assent and became statute laws for example The Voyeurism (offences) Bill
• Lords do not really legitimise legislation but can delay it for up to 1 year.
• Secondary legislation: mostly made by government ministers that require parliamentary approval but do not have to pass through the full procedure.
• Primary legislation: important laws that need parliamentary approval
• Statutory instruments are forms of secondary legislation that have little scrutiny and few checks
• Theresa May used statutory instruments in 2018 and 2019 to allow the government to make many decisions about Brexit without going through parliament
• Statutory instruments are increasingly being used as they are not considered by government
• A bill will start in either the House of Commons or Lords, then move to the House of Lords or Commons depending on where it started, then back to where it started, then considered for amendments, then to Royak Assent.
• (1) First reading: bill formally introduced to chamber, no debate or vote.
• (2) Second reading: proposer of bill presents more details and is subjected to questions.
• (3) Committee stage: 16 to 50 MPs debate the bill
• (5) Third reading: final version of the bill is presented and debated in the Commons
• (4) Report stage: public bill committee reports back to commons where chamber votes.
• Public bill: most significant government bills from the House of Commons
• HoC effective?

  • primary legislation - gov is elected and legitimate and PMB allow backbencher opportunity e.g. ‘Voyeurism’ BUT gov initiative instead of House of Commons and PMB easily sent back
• HoL legislative effective?

  • primary - can only delay for a year BUT no elected or legitimate
  • secondary - has the secondary legislation scrutiny committee BUT can only make suggestions