Legislation in UK law.

Legislation

Law enacted by who has the power to enact, revoke or alter any laws as it sees fit. Parliament has the power of making law as its sole right and no court can contest any law by Parliament. It is the supreme law-making body in the United Kingdom.

The courts do not have any power to question any law made by parliament.

British Railways Board V Picken (1947)

Parliament consists of three separate parts: -

House of Commons
House of Lords
The Monarch

House of Commons – The main elected legislative body. Comprises of 659 Member of Parliament (M.Ps). The political party that has the majority of seats forms the Government of the day and most legislation is formulated from Government policy.

House of Lords – originally made up of hereditary peers, life peers, Law Lords, and Lords spiritual. House of Lords have recently been reformed by the House of Lords Act 1999 where most hereditary peerages have been abolished. It is intended to abolish all such peerages in the Parliamentary session (2001/2002) and for the House of Lords to become a partially elected body.

The Monarch – has a purely formal role. Reads the proposed legislation during the State Opening of Parliament and gives the Royal Assent to all Acts of Parliament.

Making New law

A draft law takes the form of a parliamentary Bill. It must go through the necessary stages in both Houses of Parliament.

There are three types of Bills: -

Government Bills – are introduced by the government usually from party policy and tend mostly to be on health, law and order, education or taxation. They almost always are successful in becoming an Act because of the majority in the ruling party e.g. Crime and Disorder Act 1998, Access to Justice Act 1999.
Private Member’s Bills – are introduced by back benchers who gain the right to do this by a ballot in which 20 Private members are selected to present a Bill to Parliament they are often lobbied by pressure groups to introduce a bill on an issue that the pressure group has campaigned on. They are rarely successful due to the lack of government support and because they are only allocated a Friday to debate them e.g. Abortion Act 1967, Marriage Act 1994. Members of the House of Lords can also introduce these.

Government Bills and Private Member’s Bills are Public bills because they affect everyone.

Private Bills – Only affects a few people or companies. The University College of London Act 1996. Which combined the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, the Institute of Neurology and Institute of Child Health with the University College.
10 Minute Rule: - Any MP can make a speech of up to 10 minutes supporting the introduction of new legislation. This method is rarely successful The Bail (Amendment) Act 1993 gave the prosecution the right to appeal against the granting of bail to ...

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Government Bills and Private Member’s Bills are Public bills because they affect everyone.

Private Bills – Only affects a few people or companies. The University College of London Act 1996. Which combined the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, the Institute of Neurology and Institute of Child Health with the University College.
10 Minute Rule: - Any MP can make a speech of up to 10 minutes supporting the introduction of new legislation. This method is rarely successful The Bail (Amendment) Act 1993 gave the prosecution the right to appeal against the granting of bail to a defendant. An example of a Private Bill is one which was recently introduced by Bill Tynan this private members act is called the Fireworks Act 2003.

Government Bills

Before these Bills are introduced into Parliament, there is often consultation or discussion with interested parties such as professional bodies and pressure groups. Proposals for legislative changes may be contained in government Green papers. These are consultative documents. Interested parties are invited to send comments to the relevant Secretary of State. Then a White Paper (e.g. Justice..?.. all which resulted from recommendations made by Lord Justice Auld on reform of the criminal justice system.), (White Paper is a statement of policy), is published with firm proposals for new legislation. This will incorporate results of consideration of the consultation process.

A Bill is then drafted by Parliamentary Draftsmen, who are barristers and solicitors. Their role is to select the best words for translating policy into law and to assist the Government during the passage of Bills through Parliament.

First Reading – The reading out of the Bill either by the relevant secretary of State or by the promoter of the Bill. This is to make MPs aware of its existents so that they can obtain a copy if they are interested. A vote takes place at this stage where the members shout ‘Aye’ or ‘No’.
Second Reading - Main Parliamentary debate of the Bill. This debate is recorded in Hand side. At the end of the debate there is a vote.
Committee Stage – 16-50 MPs appointed because of their interested in the debate go through the Bill word for word. For really important Bills there is a committee for the whole house.
Report Stage – At the Committee stage amendments to various clauses in the Bill may have been voted on and passed, so this report stage is wehere the committee report back to the House on those amendments. (If there were no amendments at the Committee stage, there will not be a ‘Report’ stage – instead the Bill go straight on to the Third Reading.) The amendments will be debated in the House and accepted or rejected. Further amendments may also be added. The Report stage has been describe 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 – (The Bill is now being sent to the House of Lords where the legislative process is broadly similar to the House of Commons. Some bills may start their lives in the House of Lords in which case the process is reversed.)This is the final vote on the Bill. It is almost a formality since a Bill which has passed through all the stages above is unlikely to fail at this late stage. In fact in the House of Commons there will only be an actual further debate on the Bill as a whole if at least six MPs request it. However, in the House of Lords there may sometimes be amendments made at this stage.
The House of Lords – If the Bill started its life in the House of Commons it is now passed to the House of Lords where it goes through the same five stages outlined above and if the House of Lords makes amendments to the Bill, then it will go back to the House of Commons for them to consider those amendments. If the Bill started in the House of Lords then it passes to the House of Commons. The power of the House of Lords is limited by the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949. These allow a Bill to become law even if the House of Lords rejects it, provided that the Bill is reintroduced in the next session of Parliament and passes all the stages again there. The principle behind the Parliament Acts is that the House of Lords is not an elected body, and its function is to refine and add to the law rather then oppose the will of the democratically elected House of Commons. In fact there have only been four occasions when this procedure has been used to by-pass the House of Lords after they had voted against a Bill. The last occasion was the War Crimes Act in 1991.
Royal Assent – (Commencement) the act comes into force on midnight it is given royal assent, unless the act has provision to delay the commencement date. Sometimes power is delegated to the relevant Secretary of State for implementing the act when they see fit.

Types of Legislation

Introducing new law – The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 makes it unlawful to discriminate against anyone who is disabled in the workplace.
Repealing old law – it basically means removing the law so you can either repeal former Acts of Parliament or repeal common law. Every year there is a..?.. Statute law repeal Act. For example the statute law repeals act (1995) repealed 293 acts e.g. the law reform (Year and a Day) Act 1996.
Consolidation – Not changing the law just bringing it together into one Act. An example of that is powers of Criminal Court (sentencing) Act 2000 which bought together all the law on sentencing the advantage of this is the law can easily be found.
Codification – is where there is a large body of case law and Statute in a particular area of the law. A new Statute is created to bring together the law in that area. E.g. the police and criminal evidence act (pace).

Criticisms of the legislative process

Language – lack simplicity and clarity. Obscure and complex its meaning elusive and its effect uncertain.

Over elaboration – the use of too many words to try and get it across. It said that the desire for “certainty” in the application of legislation leads to over elaboration.

Structure – The internal of, and sequences of clauses within, individual statutes is considered to be often illogical and helpful to the reader.

Arrangement and amendment – the lack of clear connection between various Acts can cause confusion.