Part of UK Borders Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 4:45 pm on 20 March 2007.
James Clappison
Conservative, Hertsmere
4:45,
20 March 2007
Will the Minister address a related question in his letter to me? Will there be any way to communicate to sentencing judges, through sentencing guidelines, that if somebody is convicted of assaulting an immigration officer and occasioning actual bodily harm, the fact that it was an immigration officer who was assaulted should be regarded as an aggravating feature of the offence? That is to say, the fact that it was an offence of causing actual bodily harm to an immigration officer should be regarded as an aggravating circumstance and make the sentence more serious than it would otherwise be.
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.
