Harry Cohen
House of Commons Bills
Many people write to me about bills which are going through the parliamentary process, sometimes because they are anxious for a particular measure to be passed and sometimes because they have concerns about a particular aspect of a bill. Such comments are always useful for a constituency MP to know, but what I do find is that many people are not aware of how bills are dealt with in parliament and what happens at the different stages in the process. I do receive a lot of correspondence from constituents lobbying for changes to bills at times in the procedure when changes are not being made, for example at Second Reading. I thought it might be useful to try and make sense of the procedure.
When a bill is introduced to the House of Commons it is formally presented to the House. This is known as its First Reading and, despite the name, nothing much really happens at this stage.
The first debate on any bill takes place at Second Reading when there is a full debate in the Chamber of the House of Commons. At this time it is the general principles of a bill which are supposed to be debated (although it has been known for people to stray into other areas!). At this stage MPs state their support or opposition to the bill. Others might declare their support for many of the measures outlined but highlight reservations about some of the clauses. A vote is taken to move the bill on to the next stage of the process but votes on the detail of the bill come much later.
If the bill passes the Second Reading stage it is sent upstairs to the committee corridor where a committee of MPs, with members from the government and opposition parties, looks at the various clauses of the bill in detail and amendments may be suggested and voted on. These committees are called Standing Committees because they used to meet standing up. Clearly, the discussions nowadays take much longer than they did then!
After a bill has finished its committee stage it returns to the floor of the House of Commons for what is known as its Report Stage. More amendments can be moved and voted on at this time before the bill goes on to have a Third Reading. If MPs pass the bill it is then sent to the House of Lords where it undergoes a very similar procedure. Of course, if it is amended in the House of Lords the House of Commons then has to vote on whether to accept the amendment or not. Once agreed by both Houses of Parliament the bill is sent to the Queen for Royal Assent before it becomes law.
It can be a confusing process but I think it is helpful for people to know how it works, especially if they are pressing for changes to a bill, so that any representation can be sent to coincide with the appropriate stage in a bill’s passage through parliament.
If you wish to contact me you can do so in the following ways:
- by letter to Gilbert Wakefield House. 67 Bewsey Street, Warrington, WA2 7JQ;
- by telephone on 01925 232 480;
- by fax on 01925 232 239;
- by e-mail at jonesh@parliament.uk
