Applied Law - QCF (Edexcel)

Law Making

New laws or changed laws that pass through parliament have to go through a process this is first introduced to the public via green paper and this presents the new or changed law any member of the public concerned, white paper is a more formal proposal and this allows the bill to be presented in a draft to parliament thus beginning the journey in either the House of Lords or Commons.

The bill is introduced to parliament and goes through a First reading, Second reading, Committee stage, Report stage, Third Reading, Royal Assent to then become an Act Of Parliament, the first reading is where the Bill is read out to take a formal vote, the second reading is a debate and another vote, the committee stage is a process where chosen representatives read and address the issues in the Bill checking if any amendments can be made and this is followed by the report stage to get the votes from the amended Bill after this a third reading is held this is the final vote, although this process does not change anything the royal assent - the monarch signs the Bill and this then becomes an Act of Parliament. The public bill, introduced by the government affects everyone in the country when it comes into force whereas the private bill is typically supported by an organisation, such as a local government or a private corporation, in order to grant them specific powers and the private members' bill don't often pass as it is usually single MP's bringing up moral issues.

Delegated legislation allows the government to make changes in the law without making it an act of parliament. There are three types of delegated legislation, statutory instruments, by-laws and order of council. Statutory instruments give you the power to make an act of parliament through a minister of the crown, an example of this would be the Misuse of Drugs Act (1971) - this act proposed that all drugs that could not be controlled substances should be illegalised.

By-laws are local laws created locally for a specific area requiring something to be done or not done and these would involve penalties, the Clean Neighbourhood and Environment Act (2005) allows local authorities to create foul free areas and fine anyone who doesn't follow these rules - NE Lincs. Council for example makes laws about not drinking in the town centre. Order in council orders that have been approved by the Queen, there are two types statutory and prerogative, statutory orders allow the Queen to actually make orders whereas prerogative orders allow the Queen to make choices that have not been legislated by parliament, an example of this is the Consumer Protection Act (1987) extended consumer protection laws against agricultural products to comply with the European Directive. Delegated legislation can be challenged by the high court through the doctrine of ultra vires if they think the government has overstepped the line. Parliament has the right to inspect every new piece of delegated legislation through the scrutiny committee where they can approve or disapprove of the new or changed law going through - with affirmative being approval and negative resolutions being disapproval. Delegated legislation is good because, fast, technical, flexible and easy but it can be bad as not all legislation can be approved on time and there may be inconsistency with laws in different towns and cities.