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Bills in the House of LordsFive Stages through Which a Bill Must Pass in the UK’s Upper House
After being considered by the House of Commons, a Bill must pass through five stages in the House of Lords before being passed to the Queen for the Royal Assent.
New laws cannot be creating by Parliament unless they have passed a number of stages and been agreed upon in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords and then been given the Royal Assent. This process of law-making is vitally important and so the correct procedure must always be followed. Once a Bill has been agreed upon in the House of Commons, one of the Clerks of the Table brings it to the House of Lords where it must successfully complete five stages if it is to be passed forward for Royal Assent. First Reading The First Reading in the House of Lords is similar to that in the House of Commons as it is the time when the Bill is introduced by a Minister. As Members of the House of Commons cannot by convention speak before the House of Lords, the Minister who presents the Bill will be one of the Lords rather than the original MP who presented it to the Commons. Second Reading Once more the procedure is the same as in the House of Commons. The Second Reading provides an opportunity for the main purpose of the Bill to be explained to the House. The Committee StageIn the House of Commons, Bills are generally considered by a small Committee of 15 to 60 MPs but in the Lords Bills go to a Committee of the Whole House. Since the Committee Stage is held in the Chamber of the House rather than a Committee Room any Lord who is interested can contribute to the debate. Committees of the Whole House are viable in the Lords because they have greater time available for debate than the House of Commons has. The Lords will go through every part of the Bill and either agree to it or change it. Report StageThe Report Stage is the time when the findings of the Committee are reported back to the whole House. This is necessary even in the House of Lords since the Report Stage is held roughly two weeks after the Report Stage and so different people will be present on each occasion. Further changes to the Bill can be made during the Report stage. Third Reading The Third Reading provides the final opportunity for the Lords to consider the Bill as a whole and is the time when any previously overlooked problems must be tackled. Further changes can be made to the Bill if necessary. Although, the Bill can be passed back to the Commons if the Lords make changes that need to be considered by the Lower House, the Third Reading is often the final stage for a Bill before it is passed to the Queen for the Royal Assent. References: McLean, I. and McMillan, A. (2003) The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics (2nd Rev Ed.) (Oxford University Press) Jones, B. et al (2006) Politics UK (6th Ed.) (Longman) Kingdom, J. (2003) Government and Politics in Britain: An Introduction (3rd Ed.) (Polity Press)
The copyright of the article Bills in the House of Lords in British/UK Affairs is owned by Erin Britton. Permission to republish Bills in the House of Lords in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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