Variations on this procedure

1. Bills may start life in either House. The Government must try to arrange its business to ensure that the Commons does not have all its work at the beginning of the session and the House of Lords has all its work at the end. Generally less controversial Bills, e.g. technical legal Bills are selected to start life in the Lords, high profile political Bills in the Commons. As the House of Commons has sole responsibility for financial matters, it has to carry the burden of the work on financial Bills.

2. Some Bills have their Second Reading Stage in Commit- tee. This is on the motion of a minister but can be pre- vented if 20 members object. This procedure was introduced in an attempt to save time on the floor of the House and is used for unopposed and non controversial legislation. If the Second Reading is in Committee, the Report Stage will also be in Committee.

3. Some Bills have their committee stage on the floor of the House in the Commons. This procedure can be used for:

(a) non-controversial Bills where the committee stage would be purely formal;

(b) Bills of major constitutional importance where all members wish to be involved at every stage;

(c) Bills passed in an emergency;

(d) major clauses of Finance Bills.

In these cases Committee and Report Stages will be combined.

LANGUAGE PRACTICE AND COMPREHENSION CHECK

TASK IUse the text to provide adjectives for the following words and word combinations: process, Cabinet committee, Papers, interest groups, negotiations, Bills, wording, amendments, clauses.

TASK II Complete the following sentences :

1. The content and policy of the Bill….

2. The main content of the Bill….

3. Responsibility for drafting the Bill….

4. The title of the Bill….

5. The principles of the Bill….

6. A detailed clause by clause analysis of the Bill….

7. Less controversial Bills….

8. Technical legal Bills….

9. High profile political Bills….

10. Bills of major constitutional importance....

11. Major clauses of Finance Bills….

TASK III Describe the role of each of the following participants in the enactment of a public Bill:

A. The appropriate Cabinet committee….

B. The full Cabinet….

C. Various interest groups….

D. The various interested parties….

E. The Parliamentary Draftsmen….

F. Legislation Committee of the Cabinet….

G. The Lord Chancellor’s Office….

H. A standing committee….

I. The whole House….

J. The House of Lords....

K. The Government….

L. Both Houses….

M. A minister….

TASK IV a)Provide nouns for the following verbs to make up sentences; use the verbs in the passive forms: receive, invoke, reach, reintroduce, reject, approve, consider, amend, support, read out, fix, examine, scrutinise, settle.

b) use the following verbs in the sentences below:

received, receive, invoked, reach, reach, reintroduced, reject, reject, reject, approved, approved, considered, considered, considered, considered, amend, amended, support, s upport, read out, fixes, fix, examined, scrutinise, scrutinise, settle, settled;

c) translate the sentences:

1. Many people argue that electoral reform is unlikely because MPs would … an electoral system which threatens their seats – the view that ‘turkeys do not vote for Christmas’.

2. A flexible constitution can be … by simple parliamentary majority.

3. A Sunday Telegraph poll found that 59 per cent of English respondents … of Scottish independence; that 68 per cent favoured an English Parliament;

4. Judges have always had power to decide what the common law is, and are now generally believed to be able to change it. They can modify or overrule even well … doctrines of the common law, if they are persuaded that those doctrines either were unjust all along, or have become incompatible with contemporary circumstances or values.

5. The principle of constitutionalism is neither a rule nor a principle of law. It is a political theory as to the type of institutional arrangements that are necessary in order to … the democratic ideal.

6. Departments are badly run, according to many ministers, and unable or unwilling to … longstanding problems.

7. Parliament reluctantly (and the Government even more reluctantly) agrees to … the Human Rights Act to permit courts to quash any part of an Act of Parliament that does not meet the Convention right requirements.

8. The common law was … a law of reason, whose most fundamental principle was the welfare of the community.

9. Ministers also were obliged to accept that cases would still proceed to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, and acknowledged that the UK still … itself bound by the Court’s rulings, despite grumblings from its own backbenches on this point.

10. Any reform of watchdog arrangements has to ensure continuing operational effectiveness (including adequate resourcing) without diminishing public confidence in them andin the areas of government which they ….

11. In negotiations, the Liberal Democrats may thus be prepared to … for Lords reform as a proxy for electoral reform.

12. Without a functioning appeals system, authorities could refuse to disclose information safe in the knowledge that their case would not be … for a long time.

13. In Europe certain watchdogs are … to be more like judges and courts than officials or quangos.

14. James Madison observed that 'the British Constitution … no limit whatever to the discretion of the legislature'.

15. The statement is written down by the magistrates' clerk, … to the witness in the presence of the accused, signed by the witness, and certified by the examining magistrate.

16. Parties use the internet and blogging to try and … voters, especially those under 35 whose turnout at elections is low and who prefer the new to the conventional media.

17. One interesting feature to watch, as both the judiciary and parliament become more assertive vis-`a-vis the executive, is whether they … each other in seeking extension of their powers.

18. The Government promised that properly worded petitions would … a ministerial response.

19. Laws that have been … may be (no man doubts) again repealed, and to that end also disputed against, by the authors thereof themselves.

20. The judges had no authority to … even a statute whose main object was unreasonable, because 'that were to set the judicial power above that of the legislature, which would be subversive of all government'.

21. Government bypasses the conventional media to … customer and client groups, such as pensioners and other benefit recipients.

22. Political events sparked off by the watchdogs’ investigations may also offer MPs enhanced opportunities to … and influence the internal workings of Government, including ministers, officials, special advisers and public appointments.

23. The Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill 2008 duly proposes to remove the discretion of the Lord Chancellor to … or seek a reconsideration of appointments below the High Court (and the Prime Minister’s entirely formal role in the most senior appointments), although it does not take forward the proposals for any parliamentary involvement in the process.

24. Mr Brown was sympathetic to the suggestions that petitions which … a certain level of support should be debated in the Commons. This view had previously been urged by David Cameron, the Leader of the Conservative Opposition.

25. The ‘‘force and effect’’ of the Thirteenth Amendment itself has been … only a few times by the Court to strike down state legislation which it … to have … servitude of persons, and the Court has not used section 1 of the Amendment against private parties.

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