Legislation Matters: Interacting with Parliament

The UK Parliament can seem daunting and inaccessible. In this briefing, Nicolette Sanders and Farhanah Mogra look at how to navigate interacting with Parliament and where to focus efforts.

What are the constituent parts of parliament?

Houses of Parliament and their functions

The functions of the Houses of Parliament include:

• Proposing, debating and voting on new laws. Bills can originate in either House of Parliament and will then pass through the other House. A bill must receive Royal Assent from the King to become law and an Act of Parliament. 

MPs and members of the House of Lords can propose the following types of bills:

• Private Members’ Bills – introduced by MPs who are not part of the government
• Government Bills – introduced by ministers
• Private Members’ Bills in the Lords – introduced by members of the House of Lords

When debating, MPs can voice the concerns of their constituents and challenge the government’s decisions. The usual way of voicing those concerns is through tabling amendments to the drafting of the bill, which can be forced to a vote if contentious.

• Checking and challenging the work of government through specialist scrutiny by select committees, some of which are specially constituted to shadow Government Departments and will look at government policies and public administration (see below) or legislation committees.
• Approving government spending.

How to interact with the legislative process

The legislative process means that everyone can have a say in how the UK is run and who runs it. For example:

• the public can engage with MPs, Lords and government officials to advocate for or against specific legislation;
• trade associations can represent an industry’s interests and these associations lobby on behalf of their members;
• the government frequently holds public consultations on proposed legislation and you can submit your views and evidence to influence the development of laws;
• you can be invited to provide evidence to parliamentary committees that scrutinises proposed legislation;
• public campaigns can raise awareness about specific issues and influence public opinion. This can pressure legislators to consider their views;
• consider collaboration with NGOs which often have an influential voice in debates about policy;
• serve on advisory panels in a particular area or working groups that inform the legislative process; or
• provide detailed research and reports on relevant issues for MPs and peers.

Select committees

Much of the work of the House of Commons and House of Lords takes place in committees, which are made up of around 10 or more MPs or peers. Committees examine issues in detail. 

• House of Commons – most are concerned with examining the work of government departments
• House of Lords:
  • permanent committees that cover broad subject areas
  • special inquiry committees that investigate a specific current issue and complete work within a set timeframe

Select Committees work in both Houses and can be joint between the Houses. They run inquiries on specific topics and the outcomes of these are made public and require a response from government. The work can be carried out through correspondence – engaging with the public through events and surveys, holding round table discussions and undertaking visits. 

How can we help

The parliamentary process is complex, sometimes archaic and hard to comprehend. Services we offer include: 

• supporting with the full legislation process, including proposing amendments and helping with navigating the process of primary legislation and decision making, through to engaging with implementation and checking or challenging secondary legislation
• supporting with select committees. A Select Committee inquiry can put an uncomfortable spotlight on a business or person’s actions, and often it may seem that they have their own agendas to push. The arcane ways of doing business and the complicated rules can seem designed to catch a witness out. We can help alleviate what can be a very stressful situation – including how to manage sometimes protracted correspondence or negotiating appearances

Look out for our next and final article which will cover interacting with legislation. 

In case you missed it, check out our first two instalments in the Legislation Matters series which can be found here: 

More here