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Advantages
- process is democratic. This is because it is made by elected representatives. Parliament is answerable to the electorate (the public), as there has to be a general election at least once every five years. A government can be voted out of office if it has not performed as the electorate expected.
- full reform as Acts of Parliament can reform whole areas of law in one Act, which makes it simpler to find. An example, is the Equality Act 2010 which abolished old offences of discrimination and created a newer and, hopefully simpler structure of offences. In contrast, judges using precedent can only change very small areas of law as they can only rule on the point of law in the case they are deciding.
- Acts of Parliament can also set broad policies and give powers to others (usually government ministers to make detailed rules – statutory instruments). This law is called delegated legislation. This is an advantage because the general structure is laid down by Parliament but it allows greater detail in the law than if it was just contained in an Act of Parliament. The effective control on delegated legislation such as the limits set in Parent Acts and review carried out by the scrutiny committee ensures parliamentary sovereignty is still upheld.
- consultation. Before a Bill is presented to Parliament,there will have been consultation on the proposed changes to the law. This allows the government to take into consideration subjections and objections to the proposals. The use of Green Papers and White Papers also makes sure that the proposed law has received consultation. Also as all Bills have to be debated and considered by both Houses of Parliament, the new law will be thoroughly discussed in Parliament.
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Disadvantages
- lack of time. Parliament does not always have time, or political will to consider all the reforms that are proposed. An example of law that is still awaiting reform is the law on non-fatal offences against the person. The Law Commission proposed changes in 1933 to the law on offences against the person which is currently under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861. Most recently, further proposals were published in Nov 2015. Some of its criticisms include that the language needs to be simplified and updated as it does not apply to modern life and there needs to be a clear hierarchy of offences. (See non-fatal offences evaluation from Paper 1). However, despite a draft Bill, the law has not been reformed and remains in an unsatisfactory state.
- long process. Even when the government introduces a Bill into Parliament, the process of becoming an Act with all the different reading, committee and report stages can take several months. In addition, the original Bill may be altered several times during the parliamentary legislative process. This can mean that the final Act is not asclear or comprehensive as it might have been.
- government control. The government is in control of the parliamentary timetable and allows very little time for private members’ Bills, which often deal with important moral issues. Even when a private member does manage to introduce a Bill, it can be easily voted out by the government as they have the majority in the House of Commons. The result is that very few private members’ Bills become law and few moral issues are legislated upon.
- law-making process is complexity. AoP are often very long and complex. This can make them difficult to understand. In fact many of the appeal cases that are heard by the SC deal with the interpretation of Acts of Parliament. For example, the appeal in R v Registrar General, ex parte Smith consisted of the House of Lords interpreting the Adoption Act 1976.Where a lot of detailed rules are needed, it is not always possible to include them in an Act of Parliament. Even if detail is given it cannot be changed without another, later Act. It is often necessary to give power to other people(government ministers) to make detailed laws. It may be difficult to find these detailed laws which have to be read together with the original Act.
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