1. The legislative process
Georgie Holmes-Skelton
Senior Clerk, House of Commons Public Bill Office

2. Types of Bills
• Public Bills
– either Government or Private Members’ Bills
• Private Bills
– “legislation of a special kind for conferring particular powers
or benefits on any person or body of persons – including
individuals, local authorities, companies, or corporations”
(Erskine May)
• Hybrid Bills
– affect “a particular private interest in a manner different
from the private interest of other persons or bodies of the
same category or class” (Speaker Hylton-Foster)
– Eg. Crossrail Bill

3. Stages of a Bill

4. Second Reading
• First substantive proceedings on the Bill, usually a
whole day
• Debate on general principles of Bill
• Debate will usually be opened or wound up by Cabinet
minister in charge of the Bill
• Opponents of a Bill can table a “reasoned amendment”
– statement of reasons why Bill should be rejected
• Often no vote at Second Reading

5. What’s next?
• Most Bills committed to a Public Bill Committee
• Some Bills considered “in Committee” on the floor of the
House: known as Committee of the whole House (CwH)
– Major constitutional importance (e.g. Fixed-Term
Parliaments Bill)
– Emergency legislation (e.g. Northern Ireland (St Andrews
Agreement) Bill)
– Uncontroversial Bills (e.g. Geneva Conventions and
United Nations Personnel (Protocols) Bill)
• Bills can be divided between CwH and PBC – Finance Bill

6. Public Bill Committee
1. Take oral and written evidence
– Public can submit evidence like a Select Committee inquiry
– Written evidence published on website and circulated to
Members
1. Line-by-line scrutiny of the Bill

7. Public Bill Committee
Whip
Whip

8. Order of consideration
• Text of Bill considered in a set order:
– Clauses
– New clauses
– Schedules
– New schedules
– Preamble (if any)
– Title (if amended)
• Programme motion can vary this order, usually to debate
schedules after the clauses to which they apply

9. Amendments
• Can be tabled by any Member of the House
• Clerks advise backbenchers and Opposition
front bench on amendments as required
• Amendments grouped together to assist
debate
• Amendments must be in order: relevant
and within scope
• Chair has power of selection of
amendments
• Not all amendments formally put to
decision
Tip: amendment
papers can be
found on the Bill
pages at
www.parliament.uk/
business/bills-and-
legislation

10. Report Stage and Third Reading
• New version of Bill “as amended in Committee” printed and debated
on the floor of the House
• Any Member can table amendments
• Grouping and selection as at Committee, but more stringent
• Different order of consideration
– New clauses
– Amendments to clauses
– New schedules
– Amendments to schedules
• Third Reading:
– one hour, immediately after Report
– Similar to Second Reading

11. What now?
• After Third Reading, Bill goes to the House of Lords
• Lords undertakes same process with some differences
– Committee stage in the Lords on the floor of the
House
– No programming
– Amendments possible at Third Reading
– Financial legislation (“Money Bills”) passed with
little scrutiny
– No Government majority

12. Ping-pong (Consideration of Amendments)
• Either:
– No amendments in Lords, straight to Royal Assent
• Or:
– amendments sent back to Commons for consideration
– Commons can accept, disagree, amend, offer amendments
in lieu
– “ping-pong” between Houses can go on for some time
– Bill can be lost on “double insistence”
– Reasons Committees

13. Royal Assent
• Once both Houses agree
the text of a Bill, submitted
to the Queen for Royal
Assent
• Speaker announces Royal
Assent in the Commons

14. The Parliament Acts
• The Parliament Act 1911 and the Parliament Act 1949
define the relationship between the Commons and the
Lords in terms of the passage of legislation
• If Commons passes a Bill in two successive Sessions
and the Lords rejects it, it can become law after the
second rejection without the consent of the Lords
• Used very rarely – last was the passage of the Hunting
Act 2004

15. Any questions?