Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Advantages and Disadvantages of
Parliamentary Law Making
- Advantage #4 - Scrutiny
- Bills pass through both houses and
receives Royal Assent
- Bills have 3 readings and 2 stages in each house
- Plenty of opportunity for debates,
scrutiny and ammendment
- Therefore poor drafting can be removed
- Advantage #1 - Democratic
- House of Commons MPs are elected
- However a truely democratic system is on
based upon proportional representation
- MP's gives views of constituents
- Lords aren't elected so they cannot veto a Bill. Under
the Parliament Act they can only delay a Bill up to 1
month
- The Monarch's role
is just a formailty
- Advantage #3 - House of Lords
- Acts as a checking mechanism in large
majority Governments
- Tony Blair 1997 election with
Labour won 418/650 seats
- Can guard against laws soely made for
the advantage of the Government
- If they delay a Bill there's more debating on it
- Lords have high amounts of
expertise therefore scrutiny levels
are very high
- Lords aren't bound by party politics and
can act independently
- Advantage #2 - Flexibility
- Bills can be started in both
houses
- Several types of Bills can be started
- All Government MPs and the Lords can start new laws
- This can b useful when Government haven't
thought of a certain issue
- Or if the topic is controversial like the Abortion Act 1967 which was a
Private Members Bill created by David Steel (LibDem)
- Disadvantage #1 - Undemocratic
- House of Lords nor Queen is elected
- Lords shouldnt be able to delay a Bill approved by
the elected Commons
- Eventhouh MPs are elected they have to vote with their party
- Large majority governments can introduce anything they wish
- Tony Blair 1997 election with
Labour won 418/650 seats
- Apparent when he sent troops to Iraq. This was a highly
controversail thing to do but as Labour had won by such a
landslide they could pass virtually anything.
- Each government last 5 years
- Disadvantage #2 - Government Control
- Can vote out any Private Members Bill
- Very few of them actaually become acts. in 2005-2006 only 3 out of 130 passed
- Government is too powerful and can pass the House of Lords
- Due to the Pariament Act 1911 and 1949
- Hunting Act 2004
- Sexual Offences Act 2000
- Disadvantage #3 - Dated process, Language and Statistics
- Draftsmen use over elaborate words
- Language is ncomprehensible to normal peole which means
the law is inaccessible to them.
- About 75% of cases heard in the Supremem Court
are about the wording of acts
- Judicary and Lawyers often have to
interpret what the Act is trying to say
- Renton Committe Report on Preparation of
Legislation 1975 and the Hansard Committe 1992
both confirmed how outdated the process was.