Parliament and Bills

Parliamentary Studies

Word limit: 1,000 words
Amount of sources: 4

Select any bill before parliament between 2017-19 and 2022-23*. Briefly explain the bill, and critically analyse what its passage tells us about parliament.

• Note: These are the dates of parliamentary sessions. You can select any bill before parliament from the start of 2017-19 until the end of 2022-23. Further explanation is below.
  Selecting your bill
  You may select any public bill before parliament during the specified period. The dates given are for parliamentary sessions. You may therefore select any bill from the start of the 2017-19 session (i.e. after the 2017 general election) until the end of the 2022-23 session (i.e. just before the King’s Speech in November 2023).
  You can find bills through the parliament website https://bills.parliament.uk/?SearchTerm=&Session=35&BillSortOrder=0&BillType=Category%3D1&BillType=1&BillStage=-1&CurrentHouse=&OriginatingHouse=&Expanded=False . You may select either a government bill or a private member’s bill, both of which are types of public bill. But you should not select a private bill or a hybrid bill (since we do not cover these on the module).
  It does not especially matter which policy area your bill covers, and you can choose a bill which received royal assent or one which did not. However, before you begin researching your bill in detail you should ensure that there is enough material available for you to analyse. For example, if you select a bill that did not have any substantive stages (as happens with some private members’ bills) you may find it difficult to complete the task well.
  Scope of analysis
  It is essential that your assignment critically analyses what the passage of this bill tells us about parliament. In other words, don’t just describe what happened, but use the primary source material to critically engage with the academic literature (and/or vice versa).
  The task instructions have been worded deliberately broadly to give you flexibility in what angle to focus on in your analysis. If you need some inspiration, the following provides some (non-exhaustive) suggestions of how you could focus your analysis:

• What does this bill tell us about the effectiveness of parliament’s influence on legislation?
• What does this bill tell us about the changing nature of executive-legislative relations?
• What does this bill tell us about the effectiveness of private members’ bills?
• What does this bill tell us about the relative importance of the two chambers in legislative scrutiny?
You may choose to focus on a particular part of the bill, or a particular stage of its passage, or the whole bill. Whatever you do, make sure you very briefly explain your focus, and obviously the narrower your focus, the more detail you will go into.

Resources allowed to use:

Norton, Philip (2013) Parliament in British Politics, 2nd edition (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan), chapter 5.
Russell, Meg, Daniel Gover and Kristina Wollter (2016) ‘Does the Executive Dominate the Westminster Legislative Process?: Six Reasons for Doubt’, Parliamentary Affairs 69(2): 286-308.
Russell, Meg and Daniel Gover (2018) ‘Parliamentary Scrutiny and Influence on Government Bills’, in Cristina Leston-Bandeira and Louise Thompson (eds.) Exploring Parliament (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 80-89.

Fleming, Thomas G. and Lisa James (2022) ‘Parliamentary Influence on Brexit Legislation, 2017-2019’, Parliamentary Affairs, early access version, https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsac014.

Government bills
Laurence Smyth, Liam, Glenn McKee and Matt Korris (2018) ‘The Legislative Cycle’, in Cristina Leston-Bandeira and Louise Thompson (eds.) Exploring Parliament (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 67-79.
Norton, Philip (2013) Parliament in British Politics, 2nd edition (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan), chapter 4.
Besly, Nicolas and Tom Goldsmith (2023) How Parliament Works, 9th edition (London: Routledge), chapter 6.
Russell, Meg and Daniel Gover (2017) Legislation at Westminster: Parliamentary Actors and Influence in the Making of British Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Russell, Meg, Daniel Gover, Kristina Wollter and Meghan Benton (2017) ‘Actors, Motivations and Outcomes in the Legislative Process: Policy Influence at Westminster’, Government & Opposition 52(1): 1-27.
Public bill committees
Defty, Andrew and Hannah White (2018) ‘Evidence from Outside’, in Cristina Leston-Bandeira and Louise Thompson (eds.) Exploring Parliament (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 152-162. [Especially pages 154-156 on public bill committee evidence sessions.]
Levy, Jessica (2010) ‘Public Bill Committees: An Assessment. Scrutiny Sought; Scrutiny Gained’, Parliamentary Affairs63(3): 534-544.
Russell, Meg, Bob Morris and Phil Larkin (2013) Fitting the Bill: Bringing Commons Legislation Committees into Line with Best Practice (London: Constitution Unit). [Available online at https://www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit/sites/constitution-unit/files/Fitting_the_Bill_complete_pdf.pdf]
Thompson, Louise (2013) ‘More of the Same or a Period of Change? The Impact of Bill Committees in the Twenty-First Century House of Commons’, Parliamentary Affairs 66(3): 459-479.
Thompson, Louise (2014) ‘Evidence Taking Under the Microscope: How has Oral Evidence Affected the Scrutiny of Legislation in House of Commons Committees?’, British Politics 9(4): 385-400.
Thompson, Louise (2015) Making British Law: Committees in Action (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).
Thompson, Louise and Tony McNulty (2018) ‘Committee Scrutiny of Legislation’, in Cristina Leston-Bandeira and Louise Thompson (eds.) Exploring Parliament (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 90-99.

Private members’ bills
Brazier, Alex and Ruth Fox (2010) ‘Enhancing the Backbench MP’s Role as a Legislator: The Case for Urgent Reform of Private Members Bills’, Parliamentary Affairs 63(1): 201-211.
Cowley, Philip and Nick Stace (1996) ‘The Wild Mammals (Protection) Bill: A Parliamentary White Elephant?’, Journal of Legislative Studies 2(4): 339-355.
Hazell, Robert and Fergus Reid (2018) ‘Private Members’ Bills’, in Cristina Leston-Bandeira and Louise Thompson (eds.) Exploring Parliament (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 122-130.
Marsh, Holly and David Marsh (2002) ‘Tories in the Killing Fields? The Fate of Private Members’ Bills in the 1997-2001 Parliament’, Journal of Legislative Studies 8(1): 91-112.
Procedure Committee (2013) Private Members’ Bills, second report of 2013-14 session, HC 188-I (London: The Stationery Office). [Available online at https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmselect/cmproced/188/188.pdf]
Procedure Committee (2016) Private Members’ Bills, third report of 2015-16 session, HC 684 (London: The Stationery Office). [Available online at https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmselect/cmproced/684/684.pdf]
Pre- and post-legislative scrutiny
Caygill, Thomas (2019) ‘A Tale of Two Houses?: Post-Legislative Scrutiny in the UK Parliament’, European Journal of Law Reform 21(2): 87-101.
Caygill, Thomas (2019) ‘Legislation Under Review: An Assessment of Post-Legislative Scrutiny Recommendations in the UK Parliament’, Journal of Legislative Studies 25(2): 295-313.
Caygill, Thomas (2020) ‘The UK Post-Legislative Scrutiny Gap’, Journal of Legislative Studies 26(3): 387-404.
Norton, Philip (2019) ‘Post-Legislative Scrutiny in the UK Parliament: Adding Value’, Journal of Legislative Studies 25(3): 340-357.
Smookler, Jennifer (2006) ‘Making A Difference? The Effectiveness of Pre-Legislative Scrutiny’, Parliamentary Affairs 59(3): 522-535.
Other reform of the legislative process
Constitution Committee (2019) The Legislative Process: The Passage of Bills Through Parliament, 24th report of 2017-19 session, HL 393 (London: House of Lords). [Available online at https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201719/ldselect/ldconst/393/393.pdf]
Korris, Matt (2011) ‘Standing Up for Scrutiny: How and Why Parliament Should Make Better Law’, Parliamentary Affairs 64(3): 564-574.
Modernisation Committee (2006) The Legislative Process, first report of 2005-2006 session, HC 1097 (London: The Stationery Office). [Available online at https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmmodern/1097/1097.pdf]
Political and Constitutional Reform Committee (2013) Ensuring Standards in the Quality of Legislation, first report of 2013-2014 session, HC 85 (London: The Stationery Office). [Available online at https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmselect/cmpolcon/85/85.pdf]
Sargeant, Jess and Jack Pannell (2022) ‘The Legislative Process: How to Empower Parliament’, Institute for Government, accessed at https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/files/2022-12/the-legislative-process.pdf.
King, Anthony (1976) ‘Modes of Executive-Legislative Relations: Great Britain, France, and West Germany’, Legislative Studies Quarterly 1(1): 11-36.
Cowley, Philip (2005) The Rebels: How Blair Mislaid His Majority (London: Politico’s), chapter 2. [Available on QM Plus – see below.]
Russell, Meg (2014) ‘Parliamentary Party Cohesion. Some Explanations from Psychology’, Party Politics 20(5): 712-723.
Norton, Philip (2018) ‘The Political Organization of Parliament’, in Cristina Leston-Bandeira and Louise Thompson (eds.) Exploring Parliament (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 15-23.

Russell, Meg and Philip Cowley (2018) ‘Modes of UK Executive-Legislative Relations Revisited’, Political Quarterly 89(1): 18-28.
Russell, Meg and Lisa James (2023) The Parliamentary Battle Over Brexit (Oxford: Oxford University Press). [Note: This is not specifically about executive-legislative relations, but contains lots of very useful material since Brexit was a very high-profile case study of how this works in practice.]

Norton, Philip (2003) ‘Cohesion Without Discipline: Party Voting in the House of Lords’, Journal of Legislative Studies 9(4): 57-72.

Party organisation
Jones, Helen (2016) How to be a Government Whip (London: Biteback). [Note that this is by a practitioner, rather than being an academic text.]
Norton, Philip (2023) The 1922 Committee: Power Behind the Scenes (Manchester: Manchester University Press). [Note: This is scheduled for publication on 10 October 2023. We have requested paper and e-book copies for the library, but we don’t know for certain what will be available and when.]
Rogers, Robert, Rhodri Walters, Nicolas Besly and Tom Goldsmith (2019) How Parliament Works, 8th edition (London: Routledge), 84-96.
Whale, Sebastian (2020) ‘The Unusual Channels: How to Whip MPs in the Age of Coronavirus’, The House, https://www.politicshome.com/thehouse/article/the-unusual-channels-how-to-whip-mps-in-the-age-of-coronavirus. [Note that this is by a journalist, rather than being an academic text.]

Government backbenchers
Norton, Philip (2013) Parliament in British Politics, 2nd edition (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan), 27-30.
Russell, Meg and Daniel Gover (2017) Legislation at Westminster: Parliamentary Actors and Influence in the Making of British Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press), chapter 5.
Stuart, Mark (2018) ‘Whips and Rebels’, in Cristina Leston-Bandeira and Louise Thompson (eds.) Exploring Parliament (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 255-263.
Willumsen, David M. and Goetz, Klaus H. (2017) ‘Set Free? Impending Retirement and Legislative Behaviour in the UK’, Parliamentary Affairs 70(2): 254-279.
Cowley, Philip (2015) ‘The Coalition and Parliament’ in Anthony Seldon and Mike Finn (eds.) The Coalition Effect, 2010-2015 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 146-154.
Cowley, Philip and Mark Stuart (2012) ‘The Cambusters: The Conservative European Union Rebellion of October 2011’, The Political Quarterly 83(2): 402-406.
Cowley, Philip and Mark Stuart (2014) ‘In the Brown Stuff?: Labour Backbench Dissent Under Gordon Brown, 2007-2010’, Contemporary British History 28(1): 1-23.
Cowley, Philip and Mark Stuart (2008) ‘A Rebellious Decade: Backbench Rebellions under Tony Blair, 1997-2007’, in Matt Beech and Simon Lee (eds.) Ten Years of New Labour (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan), 103-119.
Cowley, Philip and Mark Stuart (2003) ‘In Place of Strife? The PLP in Government, 1997-2001’, Political Studies 51(2): 1-18.
Cowley, Philip and Philip Norton (1999) ‘Rebels and Rebellions: Conservative MPs in the 1992 Parliament’, The British Journal of Politics and International Relations 1(1): 84-105.
Melhuish, David and Philip Cowley (1995) ‘Whither the New Role in Policy Making? Conservative MPs in Standing Committees 1979 to 1992’, Journal of Legislative Studies 1(4): 54-75.
Baker, David, Andrew Gamble and S Ludlam (1993) ‘Whips or Scorpions? The Maastricht Vote and the Conservative Party’, Parliamentary Affairs 46(2): 151-166.
Baker, David, Andrew Gamble and S Ludlam (1994) ‘The Parliamentary Siege of Maastricht 1993: Conservative Divisions and British Ratification’, Parliamentary Affairs 47(1): 37-60.

Backbench rebellion data handbooks
Cowley, Philip and Mark Stuart (2014) The Four Year Itch, Or: Dissension Amongst the Coalition’s Parliamentary Parties, 2013-2014: A Data Handbook (Nottingham: University of Nottingham). [Available on QM Plus.]
Cowley, Philip and Mark Stuart (2013) Cambo Unchained: Or: Dissension Amongst the Coalition’s Parliamentary Parties, 2012-2013: A Data Handbook (Nottingham: University of Nottingham). [Available on QM Plus.]
Cowley, Philip and Mark Stuart (2012) The Bumper Book of Coalition Rebellions, Or: Dissension Amongst the Coalition’s Parliamentary Parties, 2010-2012: A Data Handbook (Nottingham: University of Nottingham). [Available on QM Plus.]
Cowley, Philip and Mark Stuart (2009) Dissension Amongst the Parliamentary Labour Party, 2008-2009: A Data Handbook (Nottingham: University of Nottingham). [Available on QM Plus.]
Cowley, Philip and Mark Stuart (2008) Browned off? Dissension Amongst the Parliamentary Labour Party, 2007-2008 (Nottingham: University of Nottingham). [Available on QM Plus.]
Cowley, Philip and Mark Stuart (2007) From Blair to Brown: Dissension Amongst the Parliamentary Labour Party, 2006-2007: A Data Handbook (Nottingham: University of Nottingham). [Available on QM Plus.]
Cowley, Philip and Mark Stuart (2006) Dissension Amongst the Parliamentary Labour Party, 2005-2006: A Data Handbook (Nottingham: University of Nottingham). [Available on QM Plus.]
Cowley, Philip and Mark Stuart (2005) Dissension Amongst the Parliamentary Labour Party, 2001-2005: A Data Handbook (Nottingham: University of Nottingham). [Available on QM Plus.]

Lords defeats
Russell, Meg and Maria Sciara (2007) ‘Why Does the Government get Defeated in the House of Lords?: The Lords, the Party System and British Politics’, British Politics 2(3): 299-322.
Russell, Meg and Maria Sciara (2008) ‘The Policy Impact of Defeats in the House of Lords’, The British Journal of Politics and International Relations 10(4): 571-589.
Russell, Meg (2013) The Contemporary House of Lords: Westminster Bicameralism Revived (Oxford: Oxford University Press), chapter 6.

Free votes and conscience issues
Cowley, Philip (1998) ‘Unbridled passions? Free Votes, Issues of Conscience and the Accountability of British Members of Parliament’, Journal of Legislative Studies 4(2): 70-88.
Raymond, Christopher D. (2017) ‘Voting Behaviour on Free Votes: Simply a Matter of Preferences?’, Parliamentary Affairs 70(3): 489-506.
Pattie, Charles, Edward Fieldhouse and R. J. Johnston (1994) ‘The Price of Conscience: The Electoral Correlates and Consequences of Free Votes and Rebellions in the British House of Commons, 1987-92’, British Journal of Political Science 24(3): 359-380.
Plumb, Alison and David Marsh (2013) ‘Beyond Party Discipline: UK Parliamentary Voting on Fox Hunting’, British Politics 8(3): 313-332.

Opposition parties
Russell, Meg and Daniel Gover (2017) Legislation at Westminster: Parliamentary Actors and Influence in the Making of British Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press), chapter 4.
Arnott, Margaret and Richard Kelly (2018) ‘Small Parties and Law-Making’, in Cristina Leston-Bandeira and Louise Thompson (eds.) Exploring Parliament (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 131-142.
Stuart, Mark (2006) ‘Managing the Poor Bloody Infantry: The Parliamentary Labour Party under John Smith, 1992-94’, Parliamentary Affairs 59(3): 401-419.
Thompson, Louise (2018) ‘Understanding Third Parties at Westminster: The SNP in the 2015 Parliament’, Politics 38(4): 443-457.

Non-party parliamentarians
Johnston, Ron and Charles Pattie (2011) ‘Parties and Crossbenchers Voting in the Post-2010 House of Lords: The Example of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill’, British Politics 6(4): 430-452.
Russell, Meg and Daniel Gover (2017) Legislation at Westminster: Parliamentary Actors and Influence in the Making of British Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press), chapter 6.
Russell, Meg and Maria Sciara (2009) ‘Independent Parliamentarians En Masse: The Changing Nature and Role of the “Crossbenchers” in the House of Lords’, Parliamentary Affairs 62(1): 32-52.

Hazell, Robert and Fergus Reid (2018) ‘Private Members’ Bills’, in Cristina Leston-Bandeira and Louise Thompson (eds.) Exploring Parliament (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 122-130.

Possible bills for this assignment:
https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/2405
https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/2430
https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/2172