The Legislative Process in the UK

Queen’s Speech

Once it has been agreed among cabinet minister, the government’s legislative programme is announced at the beginning of each parliamentary session. (The Queen delivers the speech, but government officials write it for her.) This is often a difficult process, and an ambitious reforming government may be frustrated by the relative lack of time. Until Labour’s recent reforms, governments sometimes had to resort to guillotine motions, which could be introduced to bring debate to a close in order to make sure that other parts of its legislative programme had time to go through necessary stages. Nowadays, the time table for bills is usually agreed in advance, through programme motions. However, if an issue is particularly controversial, the government might actually be pleased to see it fail for lack of time.

First Reading

This consists of a formal announcement that a bill will be printed, and introduced for debate at a certain time. In the Commons, there is no vote at this stage.

Second Reading

This is the key stage, when MPs debate the principle of the bill. Ministers in the department most affected by the proposals begin and end the debate, which is followed by a vote.

Committee Stage

Provided that the bill passes its second reading, it is allotted to the relevant standing committee. Each line of the bill is scrutinised, but significant changes are rare because the committee will have a built-in government majority.

Report Stage

If the committee does suggest major changes, the House of Commons as a whole has to approve them in the form of amendments.

Third Reading

Bills can no longer be amended at this stage (except in the Lords). They have to be accepted or rejected as a whole. This means that there are fewer debates and votes.

House of Lords

The bill has to negotiate a similar obstacle course in the Lords before it can be presented for the queen’s signature. The Lords has lost the power to reject a bill, unless it has failed to pass it at the time that parliament is dissolved for a general election. But bills are quite often returned to the Commons with amendments. The Commons (in practice, the government) then decides whether or not to accept these changes. If they cannot accept them and vote accordingly, the Lords usually give way without further protest. However, the Lords put up a protracted resistance over the Hunting Act (2004) and the Prevention of Terrorism Act (2005). In the first case, the government only pushed through the legislation by means of the Parliament Act of 1949.

Royal Assent

This is necessary for the bill to become law, but it is a formality nowadays since no monarch has refused to sign legislation since Queen Anne in 1707.