Orders of the Day — Harbours Bill – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 16 Mawrth 1964.
Vice-Admiral John Hughes-Hallett
, Croydon North East
12:00,
16 Mawrth 1964
I beg to move, in page 52, line 32, to leave out "8" and insert "8(1), 17(7)".
This Amendment serves two purposes. The reference to Clause 8(1) is a drafting matter, consequential on Amendment No. 22 on the Notice Paper which the House accepted on 4th March. That Amendment expanded Clause 8 to provide for the making of two sorts of Orders by the Minister, and it is now necessary to specify that only the type of Order mentioned in subsection (1) of Clause 8 shall be subject to negative Resolution procedure.
Secondly, the Amendment puts in a reference to subsection (7) of Clause 17—a new subsection to which the House also agreed on 4th March. The House will recall that that new subsection gave the Minister power to amend a reorganisation scheme so as to protect pension rights. We now propose that the exercise of the power should be subject to negative Resolution procedure. That is the effect of the Amendment.
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.
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.
