Appendix 3: Call for evidence
The Constitution Committee is conducting a large-scale inquiry into the legislative process. This follows its major 2004 report on Parliament and the Legislative Process.131 The Committee is interested in how bills are prepared by Government and scrutinised in Parliament; whether and how outside organisations and the public are involved in the process; and how the legislative process is, or could be, affected by new technology and by the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.
The inquiry began in October 2016 and will continue in this parliamentary session. It is split into four distinct parts:
(1) Preparing legislation for introduction in Parliament;
(2)The passage of legislation through Parliament;
(3)The delegation of powers; and
(4)The period after Royal Assent.
The Committee published its report on stage 1, preparing legislation for Parliament, in October 2017.132 The Committee took evidence on stage 3, the delegation of powers, between October 2016 and February 2017 and will report on it in the coming months.
The Committee is now seeking evidence on stage 2 of its inquiry: the passage of legislation through Parliament. The Committee is focusing on Parliament’s scrutiny of bills and the use of parliamentary time for legislation. It will examine how bills are considered at each stage of the process, the use of parliamentary time for legislative scrutiny, and the quality of the explanatory materials that accompany bills. The inquiry will also explore the extent to which the public and stakeholders can get involved in the legislative process and the scope for new technologies to improve the scrutiny of legislation.
The Committee welcomes written submissions on any aspect of this topic, and particularly on the issues and questions set out below. Submissions need not address all the questions. We welcome contributions from all interested individuals and organisations.
Questions:
Parliamentary scrutiny processes
- How effectively does Parliament scrutinise bills at the various stages of the legislative process, in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords?
- To what extent does each House have a separate role in the legislative process? How well understood are these roles?
- What has been the impact of changes to the legislative process since 2004, such as the introduction in the House of Commons of public bill committees and the ‘English votes for English laws’ procedures?
- Should there be greater select committee involvement in legislative scrutiny?
- To what extent does the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union pose challenges for Parliament’s scrutiny of bills?
Timetabling of legislative scrutiny
- Does the legislative process appropriately balance time spent considering bills in the Chamber of each House with time in public bill committee/Grand Committee?
- Does the arrangement and timetabling of legislative business work effectively?
- What is the impact on the legislative process of having annual sessions of Parliament? What difference does a two-year session, such as 2010–12 and 2017–19, make?
Explanatory materials
- How useful are the explanatory materials accompanying bills for parliamentarians and the public? What could be done to improve the accessibility and understanding of legislation?
- How effective is Parliament’s scrutiny of impact assessments and other Government documents accompanying legislation?
Public engagement
- To what extent, and how effectively, are the public and stakeholders involved in the scrutiny of legislation as it passes through Parliament?
- To what extent does stakeholder involvement prior to the introduction of a bill have an impact during the legislative process?
- What could be done to increase or improve engagement with the public and stakeholders?
Technology
- How might Parliament’s website be improved to communicate the workings of the legislative process more effectively? Are there opportunities to display more clearly the way bills change through the process and the impact of proposed amendments at each stage?
- How can new technologies enhance the quality of bill scrutiny and understanding of the legislative process?
131 Constitution Committee, Parliament and the Legislative Process (14th Report of Session 2003–04, HL Paper 173)
132 Constitution Committee, The Legislative Process: Preparing Legislation for Parliament (4th Report of Session 2017–19, HL Paper 27