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
The idea of visiting
Initially the committee was interested in visiting
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
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: