AO1 - Legislative Process

• 1. The first stage is the pre-legislative stage

  • Public bill: Affect whole population
  • Private bill: Affects individuals or small groups
  • Private members bill: Back bench MPs can make suggestions for laws to go through parliament
  • Whitehall stage - green paper (interested parties are invited to make comments on government's opinion) or white paper (does not invite comments, states firm proposals)
• 2. First reading

  • Bill is read out - notifies that a bill is up for discussion
  • Set a date for the second reading
• 3. Second reading

  • Debate on the bill
  • Ministers enter a lobby of either yes or no, lobby with the majority win the vote
• 4. Committee stage

  • Bill is scrutinised/checked by a group of 16-50 MPs
• 5. Report stage

  • Committee report back to the house with proposed changes to the bill
  • Can be skipped if no changes were made
• 6. Third reading

  • Final vote on the final draft of the bill
  • No changes allowed except for spelling, punctuation and grammar
• 7. Repeat process

  • Bill passes through the same stages in the other house
  • If the bill gets passed back and forth between houses, this can result in a ping pong effect
  • Bill can still become law even if the House of Lords rejects it as the House of Commons has more power (voted in by society)
• 8. Royal assent

  • Monarch's approval of the bill under the Royal Assent Act 1967
  • Only see the title of the bill