Here is general information about the format of Bills and how they may be submitted. I am going to be flexible with the format, as I believe complexity is unneccessary in the TSR Commons, and would only hold back and unduly complicate the process of getting Bills through.
Proposing a Bill
All Bills should be sent to me by PM once they are finalized and ready for the first reading.
The Bill should, of course, be in the above format.
A Private Members Bill must be submitted by the member who has created and wants to pass the Bill, and a Bill submitted on behalf of the Party must come from the Party leader (or Deputy).
Format of the Bill
The format will be similar to those proposed in the real House of Commons, and will take similar shape to those outlined in Dexnell's thread.
I must stress, though, that I am being flexible with this, and as long as you roughly follow the simple guidlines I'll have no problem processing it at all.
Quite simply, Bills should be submitted as follows:
State first whether the Bill is a Private Members Bill, or whether it is a Bill being proposed by the Party (if the latter is the case then it must be submitted by the Party leader or Deputy Leader)
Short Title
Just to give the general jist of the Bill, and make it easy to pay reference to, reduce to full title (below) to something less wordy. Make it short and simple.
Example:
Education Reform Bill 2006
Title of the bill
Brief (but full) desciption of the Bill, preferably in one sentence. Expand slightly on the short title, and make sure the Title gets across briefly the nature of the Bill.
Example:
A Bill that makes the studying of History, compulsory in all state schools up to and including Key Stage Four.
Enacting words
All Bills should start with the enacting words as follows:
"BE IT ENACTED by The Queen's [King's] most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Commons in this present Parliament assembled, in accordance with the provisions of the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-"
Content
Do this however you like, there is no word limit, and you may bullet-list, paragraph, do whatever you like.
Just make it simple and in plain English. No multi-coloured text, different sizes or fonts will be carried over, though.
Bill Procedure
Up to, and no more than one Bill every 24hours will go to First Reading, if there is a backlog then they will have to wait until prior Bills have been processed.
A Bill will be placed into the Hansard Thread and after a minimum of
1 day it will go to First reading. (
A8)
The Bill can undergo up to three Readings of varying length. After each reading the Party or Individual (in case of private members bills) responsible for submitting the bill may table any amendments which will then go to a further reading. This can occur following the lower limit of reading period has passed. After this period the Person/Party can also choose to take the bill to vote. If no amendments are tabled by the end of the reading period defined below then it will automatically be taken to vote.
First Reading: Two days minimum, six days maximum (More Time can be asked for by submitter of bill up to 48 hours)
Second Reading: One day minimum, four days maximum (More Time can be asked for by submitter of bill up to 24 hours)
Third Reading: - One day minimum, three days maximum
The three readings will take place in the House of Commons forum, allowing all party members to debate the tabled bill.
Voting: 4 Days
A
Cessation of Readings can be reqested by the party who submitted a bill following the first reading of a bill which is seen to be in such an undesireable form that it cannot be sufficiently ammended during the normal process. The Cessation will allow a period of
One Week, after which the newly formatted bill will go to Second Reading. (
A6)
This will be conducted in a specific thread in the voting floor, which will restrict Voting and any further discussions to the Voting MPs (VMPs). VMPs will be given the option of voting for the bill to be passed into law (aye), against it (nay), or to abstain.
This makeins the overall length of time from the Bill being PMed to me, to being passed by the House
6-21 days (The latter if there has been additional readings and full amount of extra time being used), though as I have said above, if there is other Bills in the queue then it will take longer for it to get to First Reading.
A
majority vote is required for a Bill to be enacted, and it will set a
precedent for future Bills in the Commons to follow, so it is important that the Authors think carefully about the possible consequences it could have on future legislation.
Please note that MPs can also arrange for a
proxy MP to be put in their place if they expect to be absent from the Commons for a set amount of time.
To do this, the Party leader or deputy leader must inform the speaker of the appointment of a proxy atleast 4 days in advance, and this position can be maintained for a maximum of 14 days.
TSR's model parliament.
Useful Resources:
Welcome to the TSR House of Commons
