6. Why Bring Laws in?

The law undergoes constant reform in the courts as established principles are interpreted, clarified or reapplied to meet new circumstances. Occasionally obsolete laws become outdated, and pressure arises on the Government to update the law. The Government may also wish to introduce new laws in line with its policies. During the late 1990s, for example, a series of Acts was passed to comply with the Labour Government's programme for constitutional reform.

Sometimes new laws are needed to ensure that the UK complies with International or European Law. The Human Rights Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000 are recent examples of this.

In the UK laws made by Parliament are known as Statute Laws. Every year Parliament passes about 100 laws directly by making Acts of Parliament. Within the same period, more than 3000 Statutory Instruments containing many rules and regulations are made indirectly, on Parliament's authority. Parliament sometimes passes a very general law and leaves the relevant minister to fill in the details. The minister is often in the best position to do this, particularly where circumstances are changing fairly frequently. By having the freedom to make some rules, the minister is able to adapt to changing circumstances. Using the powers given to them by Parliament, ministers, in effect, become lawmakers themselves.

The essence of law-making in Parliament is that decisions are taken on behalf of the people. Elected representatives sit in the House of Commons, while the House of Lords contains a variety of experts from all walks of life who provide the benefit of their experience.

No new law can be made by Parliament unless it has completed a number of stages in both Houses of Parliament and received the Royal Assent. Only after the Royal Assent does it become a new law or Act of Parliament. Before this, while it is still journeying through Parliament, it is called a Bill.

7. Preparatory Stages of a Government Bill

Before Bills are introduced into Parliament, consultations take place with those who are likely to be affected by the Bill. These interested parties are professional bodies, voluntary organizations and pressure groups. The consultation stage may be organized by the Government Department sponsoring the Bill. Within a Department, both the ministers and permanent officials, known as civil servants, are involved in the consultation process.

Sometimes the Government sets out its ideas for a Bill in a discussion document or consultation paper known as a Green Paper which outlines government proposal that are still taking shape and seek comments from the public. After this discussion stage, the Department may produce firm proposals in a White Paper. This will form the basis of the Bill to be introduced into Parliament. Not all Bill are initiated through Green Papers and White Papers. Discussions take place before most Bills are introduced into Parliament but these written documents are not always circulated to outside organizations.

The process of putting the terms of a Bill down on paper is known as drafting. A small number of lawyers are specially trained for this work. The Bill has to be exact and must not leave any loopholes. The Parliamentary Draftsmen therefore have to make sure that a particular sentence cannot to be taken to mean more than one thing unlike the following sentence, taken from an American Law: No one shall carry any dangerous weapon upon the public highway, except for the purpose of killing a noxious animal or a policeman in the execution of his duty ".

This sentence, as it is written, is ambiguous for it seems to suggest that people are allowed to kill policemen as well as animal which, of course, is not what was intended.

Delegated Legislation

In order to reduce pressure on parliamentary time, Acts of Parliament often give government ministers or other authorities the power to regulate administrative details by means of 'delegated' or secondary legislation. This mostly takes the form of Orders in Council, Regulations and Rules known as Statutory Instruments (SIs). These are as much the law of the land as are Acts of Parliament. SIs are normally drafted by the legal department of the ministry concerned and may be subject, when in draft, to consultations with interested parties. To minimize any risk that delegating powers to the executive might undermine the authority of Parliament, such powers are normally only delegated to authorities directly accountable to Parliament. Parliament always has the right to consider whether the SIs are made in accordance with the powers that it delegated.