Act of Parliament (United Kingdom)

[1][2] An Act of Parliament can be enforced in all four of the UK constituent countries (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland).

Public general acts form the largest category of legislation, in principle affecting the public general law applying to everyone across the entire United Kingdom, or at least to one or more of its constituent countries of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, or Wales.

Private bills only change the law as it applies to specific individuals or organisations, rather than the general public.

Groups or individuals potentially affected by these changes can petition Parliament against the proposed bill and present their objections to committees of MPs and Lords.

[5] Other private bills may affect particular companies established by Act of Parliament such as TSB Bank and Transas.

While they propose to make changes to the general law, they also contain provisions applying to specific individuals or bodies.

[10] An Act of Parliament will often confer power on the King in Council, a minister, or another public body to create delegated legislation, usually by means of a statutory instrument.

Within government, the Treasury and other departments with an interest will be consulted along with the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Outside government, interested parties such as trade unions, industry bodies and pressure groups will be asked for their views on any proposals.

The Cabinet Office Code of Practice specifies a minimum consultation period of twelve weeks.

[11] It is increasingly common for a small number of Government bills to be published in draft before they are presented in Parliament.

With increased time for scrutiny backed up with considered evidence, draft bills may present governments with difficulty in getting their way.

A potential change in the law may have to wait for a more extensive bill in that policy area to be brought forward before it is worthwhile devoting parliamentary time to it.

This committee decides which house a bill will start in, recommends to the Cabinet which proposals will be in the King's Speech, which will be published in draft and how much parliamentary time will be required.

[11] Following a process of consultation, the sponsoring department will send drafting instructions to parliamentary counsel, expert lawyers working for the government responsible for writing legislation.

A finished bill must be approved or scrutinised by the sponsoring department and minister, parliamentary counsel and LP.

[15]As we can see in this video footage of the first reading, the MP is called by the Speaker at the commencement of public business and brings a 'dummy bill', a sheet of paper with the short and long titles and the names of up to twelve supporters, to the Clerk of the House at the Table.

[8] Bills which deal primarily with taxation or public expenditure begin their passage in the Commons since the financial privileges of that House mean that it has primacy in these matters (see Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949).

The debate continues with other Opposition parties and backbench MPs giving their opinions on the principles of the Bill.

At this point, division bells will ring throughout the palace and also in nearby flats, pubs and restaurants whose owners pay to be connected to the system.

The report state, known formally as "consideration", takes place on the Floor of the House, and is a further opportunity to amend the bill.

A bill may pass backwards and forwards several times at this stage, as each House amends or rejects changes proposed by the other, a process referred to colloquially as parliamentary ping-pong.

[26] Each act commences with one of the following: Standard: Be it enacted by the King's [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:-[27]For money bills: We, Your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of the United Kingdom in Parliament assembled, towards raising the necessary supplies to defray Your Majesty's public expenses, and making an addition to the public revenue, have freely and voluntarily resolved to give and grant unto Your Majesty the several duties hereinafter mentioned; and do therefore most humbly beseech Your Majesty that it may be enacted, and be it enacted by the King's [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:-Without consent of the Lords, under the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949: BE IT ENACTED by The King's [Queen's] most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Commons in this present Parliament assembled, in accordance with the provisions of the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-As a result of devolution, the Senedd, the Northern Ireland Assembly, and the Scottish Parliament are also able to create primary legislation for their respective devolved institutions.

[31]This implied repeal thinking is later mentioned in R (HS2 Action Alliance Ltd) v Secretary of State for Transport, in relation to two "constitutional" statutes.

[32] It was said that "Acts of Parliament are no longer sovereign but can be overruled if they are incompatible with European Laws",[33] as was the case in Thoburn.

Because of its sovereignty, it is free to overrule or even abolish these institutions (a recent instance when it did was the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019).

[34] At the end of a medieval Parliament of England, a collection of acts of a public character was made in the form of a Statute Roll and given the title of the King's regnal year.

Since 1850, two copies of each act were printed on vellum, one for preservation in the House of Lords and the other for transmission to the Public Record Office.

[39] Many acts of a private, personal or local character often have not ever been printed, surviving only in a single manuscript copy in the Victoria Tower.

[35] The UK's Ministry of Justice publishes most acts of Parliament in an online statute law database.