Draft Bills currently under consideration

As part of the reforms to the legislative process initiated by the Modernisation Committee, the government now publishes a number of bills each session in draft form, before they are introduced into parliament as formal bills. This enables consultation and pre-legislative scrutiny before a bill is issued formally.

Increasingly, it had become the practice in recent sessions for the House to refer these to a joint committee of the Commons and Lords appointed for the specific purpose of examining and reporting on a named draft bill. On occasions a draft bill may be referred to one of the departmental select committees or a select committee appointed for that specific purpose.

Listed below are draft bills currently under consideration. Further information on draft bills, including those from previous sessions can be viewed on the Parliament website at http://www.parliament.uk/bills/draftbills.cfm. This page links to electronic copies of the draft bills and related publications including select committee reports on the draft bills.