AS Law AQA Unit 1 Section A Law Making

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  • Created by: Fin
  • Created on: 06-02-11 13:49

Legislative Process for standard government

1. Green Paper(contains the general proposals for reform)

2. White Paper(more detailed proposals are set out after the initial consultations.

3. Draft Bill(proposals drafted into a bill by government lawyers and then published. Formal stage begins)

4. First Reading(the bill is usually introduced to the House of Commons. Merely notifies the House of the bill and its subject matter. There is no debate.

5. Second Reading(main debate on the principles of the bill, then a vote)

6. Committee Stage(committee between 16 - 50 MPs examines details of the bill clause by clause and suggests amendments.

7. Report Stage(committee reports these amendments back to House)

8. Third Reading(usually coincides with report stage, marks final debate on bill. Amended form in House of Commons)

9. Other House(bill passes to 'Other House' (House of Lords) for similar procedures, although in committee stage in House of Lords, whole House acts as a committee.)

Types of Bill Bill is a draft law, may fall into three categories.

Private Bills - Apply to a particular area, specific organisation or a section of society rather than to country as a whole. Least common bill.

Public Bills - Aimed at the public as a whole, most introduced by the government. Also known as Government Bills.

Private Members' Bills - 10% of Commons time spent on these. Bills introduced by back bench MPs. Most common way to introduce this Bill is by ballot held annually.

Role of the Commons

  • Has the most important role because it is an elected body.
  • All important legislation begins in the Commons, all finance bills must start there.
  • In practice, any bill that the Commons pass wil be either a public bill(government bill) or a private members' bill that the government supports.
  • Not truly independent, most cases does what the government tells because the majority of MPs will be members of the governing body.

Role of the House of Lords

  • Primarily a revising and debating chamber.
  • Allows further detailed scrutiny of bills that have already passed through the House of Commons.
  • House of Lords considerd to act as 'a check on the executive's powers, a safeguard against the abuse of power'.
  • If the House of Lords rejects a bill, provided it is re-introduced to the House of Commons in the next parliamentary session and pass all the stages again, it can become law.
  • Lords not allowed to

Comments

Chloe

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This was a great help. I was looking for advanatges and disadvantages for my KA tomorrow and it summed it up quite well. :)

abtrey

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Tah. x

SophieMortlock

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Thank you! This is great!!