Laws

Laws are the rules by which a country is governed. Britain has a long history of law making and the laws of this country can be divided into three types:- 1) Statute Laws are the laws that have been made by Parliament. 2) Case Law is law that has been established from cases tried in the courts - the laws arise from test cases. The result of the test case creates a precedent on which future cases are judged. 3) Common Law is a part of English Law, which has not come from Parliament. It consists of rules of law which have developed from customs or judgements made in courts over hundreds of years. For example until 1861 Parliament had never passed a law saying that murder was an offence. From the earliest times courts had judged that murder was a crime so there was no need to make a law.

Committee of the whole House

The clause by clause consideration of a parliamentary bill takes place at its committee stage.

In the Commons this usually takes place in a standing committee, outside the Chamber, but occasionally a bill will be considered in a committee of the Whole House in the main chamber.

This means the bill is discussed in detail on the floor of the House by all MPs.

Any bill can be committed to a Committee of the Whole House but the procedure is normally reserved for finance bills and other important, controversial legislation.

The Chairman of Ways and Means presides over these Committees and the mace is placed on a bracket underneath the Table.