The legislative process for creating Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom

¶ … Janice how an Act of Parliament is made.

Acts of Parliament are the source of the most fundamental, important statutory laws in the United Kingdom. The process of creating an Act of Parliament is lengthy and complex, with interplay between many different governmental units. All Acts of Parliament begin as an idea, usually a response to some noted problem or social issue in the United Kingdom. These ideas become legislative bills are when a particular government department decides to sponsor the bill and introduce it into Parliament for passage. Bills may start their passage in either the House of Commons or House of Lords.

Consultation

Although the government sponsor will get official credit for drafting the bill, the process of drafting the bill often occurs long before the sponsor puts its name on the bill. Before a bill is introduced in either the House of Commons or the House of Lords, a period of consultation will take place among entities which may be affected by the passage of the bill.

The Parliament will appoint a Committee to oversee the Consultation and Drafting process for the bill.

During consultation, Government departments, such as the Treasury, will be consulted in order to determine the capacity of the Government to achieve legislative goals. Also, non-governmental parties with an interest in the legislation, e.g. political interest groups, industry lobbyists, and trade associations, will be asked for their views on how the bill would affect their constituencies. After receiving input from all of the selected groups, the Government will usually consolidate and summarize the positions into a document explaining the bill and its rationale, known as a White Paper.

Many draft bills, written by different groups, are circulated amongst the committee in order to present to the committee alternative terms to use in achieving the goals and concerns identified through the Consultation.

More specifically, draft bills allow the Parliament to extended time to understand the actual processes of the bill, which helps them identify potential problems with the legislation. If an error or omission is identified, departments can offer proposals to the Committee in response.

Drafting

After finishing the consultation process, the bill's sponsor will then submit specific instructions to Parliamentary counsel describing the general functions and goals of the bill, while leaving the specific language and terms to the drafting counsel. This drafting counsel will typically be composed of government lawyers with substantial legal expertise in a particular legal field and/or legislative drafting. The job of the drafting counsel is extremely important, as they are responsible for ensuring the bill complies with all procedural and constitutional requirements for new legislation.

After the drafting counsel finishes the drafting the bill, they will return it for approval by the sponsoring department, minister, parliamentary council, and Legislative Programme. After the bill is approved by each organization, the sponsoring department will submit the bill to either the House of Commons or the House of Lords. Upon arrival in either House, the bill will be checked to ensure it complies with House rules and conventions regarding construction and style.

More importantly, the bill will be checked to ensure that it does not conflict with either the Royal Prerogative or prior bills.

First Reading

The bill is officially presented for the first time in Parliament in the "First Reading." The First Reading is actually quite short and contains no Parliamentary debate at all. It is more of a formality followed to identify the origin of the bill and to place Parliamentary members on notice of the bill.

Second reading

The first substantive debate on the bill occurs during the Second Reading. During the Second Reading, Members of Parliament are allowed to debate general principles of the bill but not the individual clauses. Thus, the Second Reading reflects the Consultation process between the sponsoring department, interest groups, and relevant Parliamentary committees. After hearing the debate on the general principles of the bill, the House will vote on the bill.

If the bill passes the initial vote in the Second Reading, it will enter the Committee stage where the actual language of the bill is scrutinised by various Parliamentary committees. The Committee stage, then, is reflective of the work of the government lawyers on the Parliamentary counsel responsible for drafting the bill. A Public Bill Committee will be created to oversee amendments to the bill. The committee considers each clause of the bill, and may make amendments to the bill. After the Committee adds the amendments to the bill, the bill will proceed to the Report Stage, where the amendments added by the Public Bill Committee are considered by the House.

Formation of Contract

In order to determine how Janice will obtain relief for the failure of Croft Cakes Ltd. To pay her for the consignment of cakes, Janice will have to ensure that there was an actually a valid contract between Croft Cakes and her. Without a valid contract between the two parties, Croft Cakes would not have any legal obligation to pay Janice. A valid contract requires the presence of an offer, acceptance and consideration.

Offer

An offer is a promise that, according to its terms, is contingent upon a particular act, forbearance, or promise given in exchange for the original promise or the performance thereof; a demonstration of the willingness of a party to enter into a bargain, made in such a way that another individual is justified in understanding that his or her assent to the bargain is invited and that such assent will conclude the bargain.

In this case, Janice and Croft Cakes orally agreed to a price of 2000 pounds for the consignment of cake. Furthermore, Janice confirmed the price and the due date for the payment in a standard form contract, which Croft Cakes presumably signed.

Acceptance

An acceptance is an express act or implication by conduct that manifests assent to the terms of an offer in a manner invited or required by the offer so that a binding contract is formed. The exercise of power conferred by an offer by performance of some act. The act of a person to whom something is offered or tendered by another, whereby the offeree demonstrates through an act invited by the offer an intention of retaining the subject of the offer.

In this case, acceptance occurred when Croft Cakes signed the standard form contract that Janice presented to it.

Consideration

Consideration is something of value given by both parties to a contract that induces them to enter into the agreement to exchange mutual performances.

In this case, Janice promised to give something of value, a consignment of cakes. Croft Cakes, in return, promised to give something of value, 2000 pounds. Thus, there was consideration from both parties in the contract.

Breach

Because there is an offer, acceptance and consideration here, there is a valid contract which obligates Croft Cakes to pay Janice 2000 pounds within 7 days of receipt of the consignment of cakes from Janice. After establishing the presence of a valid contract creating specific legal obligations for Croft Cakes, Janice would then have to determine whether Croft Cakes failed to meet its legal obligations to her. In this case, Croft was obligated to pay Janice 2000 pounds within 7 days after receiving the consignment of cakes from Janice. Because it has been 2 months, well over 7 days, since Croft Cakes received the consignment of cakes from Janice and Croft cakes still has not paid, Croft Cakes has failed to meet its contractual obligations to Janice. Thus, Croft Cakes is in breach of its contract with Janice.

Remedy

Janice will have access to a number of remedies for the breach of contract by Croft Cakes. The first place to look when determining remedies is the contract itself, as most contracts have terms dealing with nonperformance of the contract and the actions each party must take in response to nonperformance. However, aggrieved parties to a contract may also seek remedies through the Court system, which will assess liability according to principles of contract law.

Court Rules

Because the United Kingdom's court system is already overburdened, courts prefer that parties only bring their disputes to Court when it is absolutely necessary. This will be true for Janice, who suffered a relatively small amount of damage from the breach. In the United Kingdom, Court rules requires parties to consider alternative methods of dispute resolution before going to court. There are now a number of other ways of sorting out complaints, disputes and legal problems without court action, including arbitration, mediation and ombudsmen schemes These are often called alternative dispute resolution (ADR) schemes.

Courts

Typically, a breach of contract claim would be brought in the County Court of her jurisdiction.

The County Court, often referred to as the Small Claims Court, deals with civil matters, such as claims for debt repayment, including enforcing court orders and return of goods bought on credit, personal Injury, breach of contract concerning goods or property, and family issues and housing disputes.

Filing a Claim

Janice's contract claim is fairly simple and her loss of low value, so it may not be worth it for her to hire a solicitor. Instead, Janice may file a claim herself with the claim forms provided at each County Court. The court's clerks can assist the claimant in filing out the form, but are not allowed to render legal advice. Janice will also have to pay a small filing fee which is calculated according to the amount of the claim, which for Janice would be 85 pounds if she files in person and 80 pounds if she files online.

If Janice does not use a solicitor to file the claim, she would be responsible for any errors or omissions in any court form she submits to the court. In the event of some mistake or omission on Janice's part, the court may dismiss Janice's case or even enter a default judgment against her.

Once a claim has been issued, a copy will be sent to the respondent, Croft Cakes, inviting the respondent to say whether they agree that they owe the money or if they want to dispute the claim. If the respondent fails to respond within the allotted time, the court will enter default judgment for Janice.

If the respondent disputes the claim, both parties will usually be asked to attend an informal, private hearing before a court.

Hearing

Although a hearing in Small Claims Court is not as complex as a traditional criminal trial, there are still many procedural pitfalls which could hurt Janice's cause. This is especially true if Janice is representing herself at the hearing and Croft Cakes is represented by an experienced solicitor. A skillful solicitor can introduce a variety of motions, requests and other procedural devices in or before the hearing, many of which could result in a judgment against Janice if she does not respond correctly. In that event, Janice could be required to pay the cost of the defendant's legal fees as part of the judgment.

Enforcement

If Janice succeeds at the hearing, she and Croft Cakes will be sent a judgment which sets out the court's decision. The judgment will order Croft Cakes to pay Janice whatever amount the judge determines is due to Janice at the hearing. Even if Janice receives a judgment from the Court entitling her to payment by Croft Cakes, Croft Cakes may still fail to honor the judgment. In this case, Janice would have to ask the court to enforce the judgment, which the court can do through a warrant of execution, an attachment of earnings order, a third party debt order, or a charging order.

Janice would have to pay the court fees for the enforcement actions, which are in the range of 100 pounds, and would still not be guaranteed the money due to her.