The International Study Tour: British Parliament Date: 26 February - 04 March 2007

Objectives of the international study tour:

The Select Committee on Members Legislative Proposals nominated the delegation consisted of six members including the Chairperson to visit Britain. The main objectives of the study tour were to study the roles and responsibilities of their counterparts in British Parliament. The Committee believed that this would assist in developing the committee and improving its performance by benchmarking with one of the best committees in the world.

The idea of visiting Britain came through meeting with Professor Linzjink of the University of Cape Town. Prof. Linzjink recommended the Committee to visit either Australia or Britain since those are some of the countries with advanced Committee Systems.

Initially the committee was interested in visiting Australia, but this could not materialise due to elections that were taking place during that moment. The Committee opted for the second choice, Britain.

Names of delegation:

Mr F Adams (Chairperson and Leader of the delegation
- ANC) Mr A L Moseki (ANC)

Mr A T Manyosi (ANe)

Mr D A Worth (DA)

Mr A Watson (DA)

Ms Z Mahapa (staff)

A. British Parliament:

The British Parliament is one of the Westminster systems' Parliaments. It consists of two Houses, the House of Commons and the House of the Lords. The House of Commons is publicly elected through the party system.

On the other hand the House of the Lords is mainly elected by the Queen. But the role of the Queen is not limited to one House, but to both Houses.

The South African High Commission in Britain played a major role in organising the meetings with British Parliament and other organisations in Britain.

On the first day, the South African delegation had an opportunity of receiving a grand tour of Houses of Parliament in Britain. The tour gave them a broader understanding of the roles and responsibilities of the House of Commons and House of the Lords.

B. Meeting with Clerk of Public Bills, Ms Jacqy Sharpe:

The delegation met with Ms Sharpe who gave them a background on the functions of the above Committee in Parliament of Westminster.

The Committee was developed in order to give members who are backbenchers, an opportunity to propose law to a state. Those proposed bills are also known as Public Bills.

They are only allocated to be debated on Fridays. Time allocated for them is 13 Fridays per year, and five hours per session.

There are procedures to be followed when introducing a bill (proposing a bill). One of them is introducing a bill through ballot system. In other words, the proposed bills are placed in a hat, and only the first twenty selected in each session would be given priority for debate. The additional Bills would be moved to Ten Minute Rule, which is a method used when presenting a bill in the House without debate. The bills introduced in this method might not receive any debate until they fade away.

The third procedure is through placing the proposed bills in the bag behind the chair of the speaker. The bills introduced through this method are very unlikely to get an opportunity to be debated.

The Private Members' Bill may be introduced by members from both houses. In order for those bills to become law they must be adopted by members of Parliament.

C. Meeting with Mr Gordon Clarke. the Committee Clerk of Modernisation Committee:

The delegation felt that it would be of great significance not to restrict themselves to one committee. It was decided that the delegation should broaden their perspectives on roles of Committees in Britain.

The Modernisation Committee was one of the committees visited.

The Modernisation Committee was established in 1997 in order to ensure the developments of the entire parliament and its committees. The Committee is under the leadership of Mr Jack Straw, who is the leader of the House of Commons.

Currently the Committee is focusing in the following areas:

 

-         Changes to legislation process

 

-         Changes to scrutiny

 

-         Changes to work lives of the members of parliament.

 

The challenges faced by the Committee is electing new leader after elections. The new leader would need training in order to understand the work of the committee, and that would be time consuming and utilisation of resources. Second challenge was the fact that the Committee has not changed much since only few bills got scrutinized.

The Committee has currently achieved some successes, such as modernising the buildings, as well as improving some procedures within the Parliament. In all modernisations made, the House Procession is the only thing that was prohibited from being modernised in order to keep the dignity of the House and to attract the attention of visitors and members of the public.

D. Meeting with the Deputy Principal Clerk of Public Bills, Mr Keith Neary:

The delegation was awarded an opportunity of meeting the Deputy Principal Clerk of Public Bills. He gave the delegation a historical background of Petitions.

The petitions are written requests made by members of the public to parliament. These could be about laws that need to be changed or general issues that concern members of the public.

In contrary to the South African procedure, members of the public
are allowed to petition parliament anytime, and at any stage.

In Britain they do not have to explore other avenues before petitioning parliament.

E. Meeting with Hansard Society, Mr Alex Brazier:

The delegation was given an opportunity of meeting with Hansard Society, an non-partisan organisation striving to promote democracy. The Hansard Society perceived the parliamentary work as the central part of the successful democracy. It was established in 1944 with the aims of promoting democracy.

Mr Alex Bazier, the Director of the organisation met the South African delegation regarding the Private Bills. He briefed the delegation on the background on existence of Private Bills Committee and its role in British Parliament.

The Hansard Society believes that the Private Bills are deliberately destroyed by government through procedures that are followed. According to Hansard Society the debate was scheduled for Fridays deliberately due to the fact that most members of Parliament do not come to Parliament on Fridays. They perceive the Private Bills Committee as the excellent opportunity for backbenchers to introduce bills, the only problem is procedure followed when dealing with
them.

F. Meeting with PRASEG:

The PRASEG is an Associate Parliamentary Renewable and Sustainable Energy Group. It is one of the known organizations monitoring government and various parliamentary activities and legislation.

The delegation from South African met with the leader of organisation, Mr Whitehead. He also emphasised on Private Bills procedures, which were similar to those mentioned by the Hansard
Society.

G. Observing debate on Private Members' Bill in the House of Commons:

The House hosted a debate on Private Members' Bills on Friday, 02 March 2007.

The South African delegation was invited to observe the debate and the procedures that were followed.

H. Recommendations: