Parliament, Politics and Law Making: Issues and Developments in the Legislative Process
Share this
{INTRO}
This report builds on previous Hansard Society work on Parliament and the law making process, most notably the Commission on the Legislative Process, which reported in 1993, under the chairmanship of Lord Rippon of Hexham. The Commission looked at the law-making process in its entirety and its report, Making the Law, is widely regarded as one of the most authoritative texts on the UK legislative process.1 As the authors in this publication make clear, Making the Law’s analysis, conclusions and recommendations have proved extremely influential within Parliament and government, and many of the report’s individual proposals have either been adopted or have influenced the debate on the legislative process.
For example, pre-legislative scrutiny, one of Making the Law’s central recommendations, has become increasingly widely used in recent years, although as Alex Brazier notes, there is a long way to go before it is a standard part of the legislative process for all bills. Likewise, the use of carry-over of bills from one session to another is a further Commission proposal that has since been implemented. In many other areas, however, the system remains unchanged. Most notably, despite the introduction of programming of legislation, the organisation and timetabling of business in Parliament remains largely opaque and executive driven. As a consequence, calls for some form of legislation steering committee to deal with legislative matters in the Commons, as outlined in Making the Law, are repeated on these pages.
Yet, whilst many aspects of the legislative process in the Westminster Parliament have ostensibly been left untouched, the decade since Making the Law was published has witnessed profound political and constitutional changes that have impacted on governance across the UK. These include a change of government; devolution to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; the implementation of the Maastricht and other European treaties; and the increasing influence of human rights legislation. These changes, and many others that have occurred in the governance of the country, have all reshaped the political and constitutional landscape. In view of the changed context, the Hansard Society decided, in 2003, that the time was right to reappraise the legislative process. Instead of revisiting the process as a whole, five important elements were identified to be the subject of briefing papers published in 2003-04.
The five briefing papers, sponsored by the international law firm DLA, looked at: Private Member’s Bills, Standing Committees, Delegated Legislation, Programming of Legislation and Pre-legislative scrutiny. This volume, Parliament, Politics and Law Making, brings together five chapters based on these topics, alongside additional essays looking at different aspects of the legislative process in the wake of constitutional changes since 1993.
Lord Norton of Louth opens the book with an overview of the legislative process, describing many of the changes that have been made and highlighting areas where the system could be improved. He focuses particularly on parliamentary scrutiny of public bills, identifying ways that Parliament can make a difference to the legislation it passes.
Alex Brazier then looks in detail at five key areas of the legislative process (outlined above), examining the impact of reforms and offering suggestions for further measures to improve the overall process. He shows that some of these areas, most notably the programming of legislation and pre- legislative scrutiny, have been the subject of significant procedural reforms, while others, primarily delegated legislation and Private Members’ Bills, remain virtually unchanged in the decade since Making The Law was published.
Barry Winetrobe examines the impact of devolution by looking at the methods that the Scottish Parliament uses to consider legislation, contrasting them with the Westminster Parliament.
David Lambert and Marie Navarro describe the very different procedures in place under the devolution settlement for Wales. Paul Double then provides an analysis of the growing impact of the European Union institutions on UK law and how parliamentary scrutiny of European legislation is being sidelined.
Paul Evans uses his vantage point as former clerk of the Joint Committee on Human Rights to examine the impact of the Human Rights Act on the legislative process, while Neil Gerrard and Sam Hinton-Smith focus on the increasingly demanding nature of regulation and how this matches up to parliamentary scrutiny.
Finally, Vanessa Knapp and Declan McHugh put legislative developments in recent years in the context of practice within and beyond Parliament, looking at how practitioners from both law and politics have managed these developments. Together these essays represent an important contribution for students, academics and practitioners to the debate on legislative reform.
Compendium of Legislative Standards for Delegating Powers in Primary Legislation
The scope and design of the delegation of legislative powers in any Bill affects the long-term balance of power between Parliament and Government. The House of Lords Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee (DPRRC) scrutinises all such delegation. This report distils standards for the delegation of powers from 101 DPRRC reports from 2017 to 2021.
Genetically modified organisms: Primary or delegated legislation?
A Statutory Instrument comes into force on 11 April that changes the legal requirements for the release of certain types of genetically modified plants. Some argue that the changes should have been made by primary, rather than delegated, legislation. Where does the boundary between the two lie?
Constitution and Governance in the UK: Parliament and Legislation
The Brexit process, the pandemic and the approach of the Johnson Government have all tended towards Parliament’s marginalisation and the accretion of executive power. For UK in a Changing Europe’s report on the constitutional landscape, we show how – in the legislative process and control of public money and executive action, including delegated legislation.
What role does the UK Parliament play in sanctioning an individual? [Video]
Sanctions are imposed on an individual in two stages - by Ministers first making regulations and secondly designating the individual, using a power in those regulations. Parliament has a role in the first stage, but not the second.
Written evidence to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee: the Restoration and Renewal of Parliament
Our submission to the Public Accounts Committee highlighted the financial and practical challenges that MPs face in deciding the fate of Parliament’s Restoration and Renewal programme. We particularly questioned the viability of the proposal to continue operating the House of Commons Chamber in the middle of a building site.
Written evidence to the House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee: Retained EU Law: Where next?
Our submission to the House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee inquiry into retained EU law (REUL) placed the issue in the context of our Delegated Legislation Review. It discussed REUL’s diversity and amendment; the people and organisations to whom REUL amendment may matter; and parliamentary scrutiny of delegated legislation arising from amending REUL.