Law making

• House of Commons:

  • Members of the House of Commons are elected by the electorate – those eligible to vote. ​
  • There are 650 members. ​
  • There must be a general election every 5 years and by-elections in constituencies where the MP has died or retired during a session in Parliament.  ​
• • The Government of the day is formed by the political party which has a majority in the House of Commons and it is the government which has the main say in formulating new Acts of Parliament. ​Two thirds of the time spent in the House of Commons is devoted to the consideration of new legislation. ​ ​John Stuart Mill in 1861, ​“The House of Commons is the sounding board of the nation – an arena in which not only the general opinion of the nation, but that of every section of it can produce itself in full light and challenge discussion.” 
• House of Lords

  • Non-elected body
  • Before 1999 there were 1100 members of whom 750 were hereditary peers, the rest consisted of life-peers, judges and bishops
  • In 1999 it was decided that it should consist of some nominated members and some elected members, and an inherited title should not automatically entitle that person to be a part of the legislative process
  • There are now 92 hereditary peers, 640 life peers, and the 26 most senior bishops
  • This was meant to be temporary, but no other significant changes have been agreed and the House of Lords has not been fully reformed as proposed
• First Reading


  1. Name and main aims of the Bill are read out

  2. Usually no discussion takes place
• Second Reading


  1. Main debate of the whole Bill takes place

  2. MPs can debate the main principles

  3. Vote is taken (verbal or formal)

  4. Tellers count the votes and declare the numbers to the Speaker

  5. There must be a majority for the Bill to proceed further
• Committee stage


  1. Detailed examination of each clause is undertaken by a committee of between 16 and 50 MPs

  2. Usually done by a Standing Committee

  3. Government will have a majority of the members with all minority members proportionately representing their number of seats in Parliament
• The Report Stage

  1. The committee reports back to the House on any amendments that have been written into the Bill

  2. Amendments will be debated in the House and accepted or rejected

  3. Described as "a useful safeguard against a small committee amending a Bill against the wishes of the House and a necessary opportunity for second thoughts"
• Third Reading

  1. Final vote on the Bill

  2. Very much a formality and very unlikely to fail at this stage

  3. Further debate on the Bill only if requested by at least 6 MPs
• The House of Lords


  1. If the Bill started in the House of Commons, it is now passed to the House of Lords, where it goes through the same 5 stages as above

  2. If the House of Lords make amendments to the Bill, it will go back to the House of Commons for consideration

  3. If the House of Commons do not accept the amendments, the Bill will be passed back to the House of Lords (referred to as 'ping-pong')

  4. If the Bill starts in the House of Lords, it will pass through similar stages as the House of Commons, with the committee stage being through the whole of the House of Commons
• Role of the Crown/Royal Assent

  1. The monarch formally gives approval to the Bill and it becomes an Act of Parliament

  2. This is now a formality and since the Royal Assent Act 1967, the monarch will not even have the text of the Bill, but a short title

  3. The last time a monarch refused to give royal assent to a Bill was in 1707 by Queen Anne
• Public bills:

  • General application to all members of society. The Equality Act 2010 ​
  • Legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society.​
  • It replaced previous anti-discrimination laws with a single Act, making the law easier to understand and strengthening protection in some situations. It sets out the different ways in which it’s unlawful to treat someone.​
• The Equality act 2010 include:

  • Direct discrimination - treating someone with a protected characteristic less favourably than others,
  • indirect discrimination - putting rules or arrangements in place that apply to everyone, but that put someone with a protected characteristic at an unfair disadvantage​,
  • harassment - unwanted behaviour linked to a protected characteristic that violates someone’s dignity or creates an offensive environment for them​, or victimisation - treating someone unfairly because they’ve complained about discrimination or harassment​
• Private member bills


  Individual MPs can introduce a Bill to Parliament and can be from any political party
• Private member bills

  • MPs who introduce them are known as 'backbenchers' as they do not sit at the front of the House of Commons and do not have Governmental responsibility
• Ways private member bills can be introduced

  1. By ballot (20 private members are selected to present their Bills to Parliament. Given very little time to present these Bills and realistically only the first 6-7 ever get presented)

  2. Through the 10 minute rule (under a section 23 order, they can be included in addition to those entered through the ballot)
• Relatively few private member bills become law
• Private bills: 


  • Affect certain individuals or corporations, not the general public. ​
  • An example would be the Faversham Oyster Fishery Company Bill 2017. ​
  • Changed the way that the company and fishery was ran. ​