After much initial consultation, the department concerned will begin drafting a bill using the services of expert Parliamentary law drafters - Parliamentary Counsel --> drafts circulated to relevant departments and relevant outside interests --> may take a year or two before gov. feels ready to introduce a bill in Parliament, Debate’s on the Monarch’s Speech (monarch reads out a speech to MPs when a session is opened, outlining the gov’s. agenda for that session) may provide some opportunity to comment on proposals to legislate - sometimes the gov. will announce its intensions through a Green or White Paper Normally, Parliament’s first chance to debate a bill is at the Second Reading
Committee stage in the Lords --> if a bill passes its Second Reading, the bill proceeds to the committee stage, normally taken by a committee of MPs responsible for scrutinising a particular bill --> usually by Public Bill Committees, but can be done by Select committees --> the bill is considered line by line and clause by clause, and amendments may be proposed, either by the gov. seeking to tidy up and improve the bill, or by gov. or opposition party MPs --> consultation with outside interests continues through this stage
If the governing party has a substantial majority in the Commons as a whole, it will have a commensurate majority on all committees, so most amendments passed by the committee will be the gov’s. own amendments, but it might accept amendments proposed by its own backbenchers and sometimes an opposition amendment
Third Reading comes after the committee stage - no more amendments to be made (“take it or leave it” stance)