Part of UK Borders Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 12:45 pm on 13 March 2007.
Crispin Blunt
Opposition Whip (Commons)
12:45,
13 March 2007
I did not quite understand. Is that some formulaic use of statute, whereby the Secretary of State has to appear when officers of his Department are named—in this case immigration officers—or is it some sort of cover for an ability to introduce another set of officers to whom people might be required to report?
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.
