Law Making

The Legislative Process in

Wales and the UK
Objectives

• Describe the various chambers and people who make up

Parliament and the Welsh legislature
• Explain the different types of Bills
• Explain how an Act of Parliament is made
• Explain the process of creating legislation in Wales and the UK
• Critically evaluate the legislative process
• Explain the devolution settlement in Wales
• Evaluate the effect of EU membership and the HRA 1998 on
Parliament ( please see lesson plans & PowerPoint's on EU
legislation and the ECHR / HRA 1998 ).
Legislative Process
Q. Statues are made by Parliament.
What is Parliament made up of?

• House of Commons

• House of Lords

• Monarch
Legislative Process

Parliament has the power to:

• Make laws
• Raise taxes

In Britain Parliament has complete power – in law there are no

limits on what it can do, Parliament is sovereign.

In reality there are lots of limits.

What limits can you think of?

• EU membership
• Effect of the HRA 1998
 The House of Commons

The House of Commons has about 650 elected members of

Parliament made up of all the various political parties and the
Government of the day.

The House of Commons is the most powerful part of Parliament. It

can force laws through even though the Lords may disagree.
The House of Lords

House of Lords Act 1999

• The House of Lords made up of:

• Hereditary peers who have inherited their title – 92 of them (soon to
lose their right to sit in the Lords)
• Life peers
• Some bishops and judges

• There is an argument going on over who should sit in the

Lords and whether some or all Lords should be elected
The Monarch
The Queen is a CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCH

• Queen Elizabeth II is HEAD OF STATE

• The Queen is a FIGUREHEAD – her powers are limited by the laws and customs of
Britain

• The Queen is head of:

• The armed forces
• The Church of England
• The legal system

• The country is governed in her name.

Making an Act of Parliament
• Manifesto
• Green Paper
• White Paper

Bills:
All statutes begin as a Bill – 3 types:
1. Public Bills
2. Private Members’ Bills
3. Private Bills
 Making an Act of Parliament
Monarch Royal Assent

House of Lords House of Lords

Third Reading

Report Stage

Committee Stage
House of Commons

Second Reading

First Reading

Bill
Making an Act of Parliament

• First Reading – title is read to the House of Commons

• Second Reading – proposals fully debated – MPs vote whether to

proceed

• Committee Stage – detailed examination – amendments can be made

• Report Stage – Committee reports back to the House, vote is taken

• Third Reading – Bill re-presented to the House - vote taken.

Making an Act of Parliament

• House of Lords – Bill then goes to the Lords – goes

through similar process as the Commons, any
amendments must go back to Commons for
consideration

• The House of Lords checks bills and improves

them. It can delay some laws for up to a year. They
CANNOT block legislation.
Making an Act of Parliament

The Parliament Acts of 1911 & 1949 – allows Royal Assent to be given without approval
of the Lords. 4 examples of where this has happened:

1. War Crimes Act 1991.

2. European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999.
3. Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000.
4. Hunting Act 2004.

R (on the application of Jackson & others) v Attorney General (2005)-

Countryside Alliance - challenge to the use of the Parliament Act 1949 to bring in the
Hunting Act.
Royal Assent

In theory the Queen must give her consent to all legislation before it
can become law:

• In practice consent is never refused

• Bill then becomes an Act of Parliament and the law.

Acts of Parliament contain the following statement, and now because of

the HRA 1998 must state whether they are compatible or incompatible
with human rights:
Be it enacted by the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice
and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this
present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 The Welsh Legislature

• In 1998 the Government of Wales Act created the National Assembly for
Wales as a single corporate body
• This in effect provided the Assembly with the right to create secondary
legislation and have 60 Assembly Members (AMs)
• 2006 the Government of Wales Act (GOWA) was passed in the
Westminster Parliament and transferred power to the Welsh Assembly to
make its own law (primary legislation) within a number of specific areas,
such as education and health
• Following a referendum on the National Assembly for Wales’s legislative
powers held on 03 March 2011, the people of Wales voted in favour of
granting the National Assembly for Wales further powers for making
laws in Wales.
The creation of legislation in the Welsh
Assembly
A Welsh Assembly Measure goes through a similar process as a Bill goes through in the Westminster
Parliament but the terminology is different. Before a proposal (Bill) become law it must go through
five stages:

• Members of the Welsh Assembly (referred to as AMs – Assembly Members) consider and agree in
principle on the Bill.

• A detailed consideration of the Bill. This involves amending the Bill by a selected committee of
Ams.

• A debate which takes place in the chamber of the Assembly. This provides an opportunity for AMs
to debate the proposed legislation and involves all AMs from different political parties.

• Passing the final draft of the Bill to the National Assembly for consideration. The final draft of the
Bill is also passed to the monarch at the Privy Council.

• The announcement when the Bill will come into force.