Part of High Hedges (No. 2) Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 3:00 pm on 7 May 2003.
Steve Pound
Labour, Ealing North
3:00,
7 May 2003
On the one hand, I am grateful for the dispatch with which we are proceeding, on the other I am getting a tad breathless. Clause 9 describes the powers of the appeal authorities—that is, the Secretary of State or the National Assembly for Wales—in determining appeals. Under the clause they may allow or dismiss appeals either in total or in part and they may quash or vary remedial notices; this is remarkably permissive legislation. They may also issue such notices in cases in which the local authority has decided not to do so.
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.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
