Part of Road Safety Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 4:00 pm on 3 February 2005.
David Kidney
Labour, Stafford
4:00,
3 February 2005
I mentioned earlier the response of the Health and Safety Executive. It says that something valuable could come out of new Clause 8, in that it could extend its powers to make level crossing orders to include highway authorities. It says that that is what happens in Northern Ireland, where each party's responsibility can clearly be specified whereas, in England and Wales, all it can do is ask the operator to seek the co-operation of the highways authority. Some benefit could come from something along those lines.
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.
