Part of Road Safety Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 11:15 am on 1 February 2005.
Greg Knight
Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
11:15,
1 February 2005
I want to ask a Constituency question, which I hope the Minister will answer on this Clause or the next one. A constituent who is going overseas has a licence that is valid but registered to him at his old address. He has just moved house. He has asked me whether he should send his licence off now or wait until he comes back from holiday.
Can the Minister tell us, for the record, what the average turnaround time is for someone submitting a licence merely to register a change of address? In other words, how long will my constituent be without his licence if he posts it off to register the new address? Will it be a couple of weeks or longer?
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.
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.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
In a general election, each Constituency chooses an MP to represent them. MPs have a responsibility to represnt the views of the Constituency in the House of Commons. There are 650 Constituencies, and thus 650 MPs. A citizen of a Constituency is known as a Constituent
