Orders of the Day — Expiring Laws Continuance Bill – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 5 November 1948.
Sir John Mellor
, Sutton Coldfield
May I ask for your guidance, Major Milner, because I am in a difficulty. The first two Subsections of Clause I provide that the Acts placed in Part I of the Schedule shall continue for one year, and those placed in Part II shall continue for two years. I have an Amendment on the Order Paper with regard to the last-mentioned Act in Part II—the Furnished Houses (Rent Control) Act, 1946. If I were not successful with that Amendment and it was not accepted by the Committee, I should desire to argue that that Act should be placed in Part I and should therefore continue for only one year instead of two. If I do not raise the point now, I feel that I might be prevented from raising it on the Schedule, and I should like to know if I shall be safe in leaving the matter until the Amendment has been disposed of.
Mr Douglas Clifton Brown
, Hexham
The hon. Member knows from his long experience that it would be competent for him to raise the matter on the Question that the Schedule, amended or unamended, be the Schedule to the Bill. That will be his opportunity.
Mr Samuel Silverman
, Nelson and Colne
Am I correct in deducing that, without saying anything further at this stage, it would be quite competent to oppose Part I of the Schedule, or, if one desires to do that, is it necessary to oppose this Clause?
Mr Douglas Clifton Brown
, Hexham
It would clearly be competent for hon. Members to vote against the Schedule as a whole. There is no Amendment down, and the question of the Schedule retaining Parts I and II does not, I think, arise.
Mr Samuel Silverman
, Nelson and Colne
I confess myself at fault here. I have no complaint to make about anyone, and I simply want to have guidance in curing my own default. I did desire to move an Amendment to Part I of the Schedule to omit one of the Acts therein mentioned. I could do that by means of a manuscript Amendment, if that were acceptable. I would like to know whether I should be compelled to oppose either this Clause or Part I of the Schedule in order to make my point?
Mr Charles Williams
, Torquay
May I ask for some explanation of Clause I (3)?: It states:
Any unrepealed enactments which are temporary in their duration shall, in so far as they amend or affect any enactment continued by the foregoing provisions of this Act, be continued in like manner as that enactment whether they are mentioned in the Schedule to this Act or not.
I think that, for the purposes of clarity, it would be a very good thing if we could know precisely how many Acts will come in under this Subsection, because it would seem to me that there might be a considerable number. I think the Committee would be quite justified in opposing this Subsection unless they knew approximately to what number of Acts it is likely to refer. I feel sure that the Government would be glad to give us this information. Although it might be mentioned elsewhere, there is the advantage that, while discussing this matter now, we could get the information in a condensed form rather than have to look up innumerable Acts.
Mr William Hall
, Colne Valley
As the hon. Gentleman very well knows, this is a Clause in common form. It is a saving Clause, but I cannot give him, nor would he expect me to, a list of possible unrepealed enactments which should be included here. This is simply a device practised by draftsmen and accepted by Governments all down the years to provide that, if anything has been overlooked, the omission could be rectified.
Mr Charles Williams
, Torquay
That is exactly the point. I know it is common form, and that is obvious. It is just as well to know, in the circumstances, if the Government have anything in their minds that might be caught up in this manner. Anyone knowing the Government's mind might think that there are several things which they have overlooked.
Laws are the rules by which a country is governed. Britain has a long history of law making and the laws of this country can be divided into three types:- 1) Statute Laws are the laws that have been made by Parliament. 2) Case Law is law that has been established from cases tried in the courts - the laws arise from test cases. The result of the test case creates a precedent on which future cases are judged. 3) Common Law is a part of English Law, which has not come from Parliament. It consists of rules of law which have developed from customs or judgements made in courts over hundreds of years. For example until 1861 Parliament had never passed a law saying that murder was an offence. From the earliest times courts had judged that murder was a crime so there was no need to make a law.
A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
When a bill becomes an Act of Parliament, clauses become known as sections.
The order paper is issued daily and lists the business which will be dealt with during that day's sitting of the House of Commons.
It provides MPs with details of what will be happening in the House throughout the day.
It also gives details of when and where the standing committees and select committees of the Commons will be meeting.
Written questions tabled to ministers by MPs on the previous day are listed at the back of the order paper.
The order paper forms one section of the daily vote bundle and is issued by the Vote Office
As a bill passes through Parliament, MPs and peers may suggest amendments - or changes - which they believe will improve the quality of the legislation.
Many hundreds of amendments are proposed by members to major bills as they pass through committee stage, report stage and third reading in both Houses of Parliament.
In the end only a handful of amendments will be incorporated into any bill.
The Speaker - or the chairman in the case of standing committees - has the power to select which amendments should be debated.
