Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am ar 15 Gorffennaf 1925.
Miss Ellen Wilkinson
, Middlesbrough East
I want to be quite sure, and I moved this Amendment in order to have an explanation from the Minister that these provisoes do nothing to militate against the right of a woman to appeal on this cohabitation Clause, or on any other matter in the Bill. We do not want to find, when this Bill is passed and when some of us wish to take up cases where we feel that very real hardship has been done, that the appeal is barred because it is stated to be a matter within the discretion of the Minister. This seems to me to be a very dangerous Clause, and I would like to have an explanation from the Minister as to whether he could see his way to give us some absolute guarantee that on these matters the woman shall not be debarred from making her appeal.
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.
As a bill passes through Parliament, MPs and peers may suggest amendments - or changes - which they believe will improve the quality of the legislation.
Many hundreds of amendments are proposed by members to major bills as they pass through committee stage, report stage and third reading in both Houses of Parliament.
In the end only a handful of amendments will be incorporated into any bill.
The Speaker - or the chairman in the case of standing committees - has the power to select which amendments should be debated.
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.
