Part of Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 5:00 pm on 23 October 2007.
David Howarth
Shadow Solicitor General, Ministry of Justice
5:00,
23 October 2007
I shall speak as one of the team of former council leaders on the Committee. Experience in another area—the relationship between the health service and local authorities—shows that there will always be a tendency for local authorities and central government to have a bit of a contest to push costs onto the other, unless a system is set up to ensure that that does not happen. With enough thought, however, those problems can be reduced.
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.
