Preparatory Stages of a Government Bill

Before Bill is introduced into Parliament, consultations take place with those who are likely to be affected by the Bill. These interested parties are professional bodies, voluntary organisations and pressure groups. The consultation stage may be organized by the Government Department sponsoring the Bill. Within a Department, both the ministers and permanent officials, known as civil servants, are involved in the consultation process.

Sometimes the Government sets out its ideas for a Bill in a discussion document or consultation paper known as a Green Paper which outlines government proposals that are still taking shape and seeks comments from the public. After this discussion stage, the Department may produce firm proposals in a White Paper. This will form the basis of the Bill to be introduced into Parliament. Not all Bills are initiated through Green Papers and White Papers. Discussions take place before most Bills are introduced into Parliament but these written documents are not always circulated to outside organisations.

The process of putting the terms of a Bill down on paper is known as drafting. A small number of lawyers are specially trained for this work. The Bill has to be exact and must not leave any loopholes. The parliamentary Draftsmen therefore have to make sure that a particular sentence cannot be taken to mean more than one thing unlike the following sentence, taken from an American law:

“No one shall carry any dangerous weapon upon the public

highway, except for the purpose of killing a noxious animal

or a policeman in the execution of his duty.”

This sentence, as it is written, is ambiguous for it seems to suggest that people are allowed to kill policemen as well as animals which, of course, is not what is intended.