Parliamentary procedure for UK government bills

The parliamentary process that follows has a number of stages, with opportunities for businesses and others impacted by the bill to inform, influence and participate in the democratic process.

Before a bill reaches parliament

Typically, a bill has been in development for several months before it is published and subjected to public and parliamentary scrutiny. Some may be compiled hastily to give effect to a party manifesto commitment immediately after a general election, while others may be several years in the making following reviews and public consultations - these provide important opportunities for stakeholders to ensure the government fully understands the issues the bill is seeking to address and its likely impact, and shapes the way it is drafted accordingly.

In the King’s Speech that opens each parliamentary session, the government sets out its programme of bills for the year ahead. Behind the scenes, this is preceded by discussions within government to identify its, typically, top 20-to-30 priorities for bills that make up the King’s Speech – though sometimes the list of bills included is longer. This was the case when the Labour government came to power in 2024, when 40 new legislative initiatives were contained in the King’s Speech that immediately followed.

Other proposals for bills being considered in government fall each year before they ever see the light of day, because political priorities change or there is not the time in a parliamentary session to pass more legislation.

A two-chamber process in parliament

Once introduced into parliament, the bill must pass through the same five stages in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The government chooses which house the bill should go through first. On average, a bill takes between nine and 12 months to complete all its stages, though short bills may be swifter, and controversial bills may face delays to allow time for changes and informal discussions between stages.

Whilst each house has the same stages and often focuses on the same issues in its scrutiny of a bill, they differ significantly in practice. In the Commons, the government of the day usually holds a majority, and only risks not having its own way on the rare occasions when its ‘backbenchers’ rebel in sufficient numbers. By contrast in the Lords, no single party holds a formal majority, and it is much more common to see some changes to a bill forced on the government. However, owing to a longstanding constitutional convention relating to bills mentioned in the government’s general election manifesto, and given the backdrop of threats from successive governments to reform the House of Lords, the Lords have refrained in recent years from flexing their constitutional muscles to block government bills they disapprove of.

The stages of scrutiny

The ‘first reading’ of a bill in each house is merely a formal announcement, with no debate. The ‘second reading’ is a general debate on the principle and objectives of the bill, to set the scene for the detailed scrutiny to follow, and there are no opportunities for amendments. This is an important moment for businesses and others impacted by the bill to shape scrutiny by briefing interested MPs or peers on the main issues to consider.

The ‘committee’ stage provides the most detailed scrutiny of a bill, as the relevant committee considers each clause of and schedule to the bill. Committee members propose amendments and vote on any changes to the text. Every clause must be agreed for the bill to progress, though in practice the committee may approve groups of uncontroversial clauses without debate.

In the House of Commons, the committee often puts out a call for written evidence from those impacted by the bill and invites external experts and interest groups in for oral evidence sessions about the bill and its impact, before scrutiny of clauses begins. Businesses can also provide briefings to individual committee members on questions that could be raised in debates, or on specific textual amendments to the bill that a committee member could put down for debate.

Amendments are often used to prompt a debate probing government policy, seeking clarification or securing commitments on the record, without necessarily intending to change the bill. The government can also table its own amendments at this stage, sometimes to provide additional detail that wasn’t ready when the bill was published or, if the bill is in the second house, to deliver on government commitments to change it that were made in the first house.

The bill then returns to ‘the floor’ of the house for its ‘report’ stage. This is usually the main test for the government on a bill, which the previous stages have been building up to. The government may introduce its own amendments to the bill as concessions, or it may be forced to accept others’ amendments if defeated in a vote. Amendments are only selected for a debate and vote if there is significant interest in them, likely to have been demonstrated at the previous stages.

The ‘third reading’ stage follows soon after and is usually a formality to conclude.

The final stages

A bill can only be passed if approved by both houses in the same form. This means that if any amendments are made in the second house, the bill must return to the first house so that they can be approved. If the houses disagree on an issue, this can lead to a bill going back and forth between them, which has led to these final stages being known as ‘ping pong’. Disagreements are usually resolved by negotiations behind the scenes, before being formalised in votes.

After a bill is passed

Once a bill has completed all its stages, the King adds his signature to give it Royal Assent. The bill becomes an act, and it is now law.

Royal Assent is not the end for the new law, but only the end of the beginning. The act will usually come into force at a later date to be decided by the government, once it has completed further preparatory work, and different provisions will often come into force at different times.

Most acts include powers for the government to make regulations on more detailed matters, which are necessary for the act to operate as intended. It is not uncommon for this to involve a detailed government work programme over a further one or two years, involving public consultations on significant issues before a new act and the regulations made under it are fully operational. This may provide a final opportunity for businesses to influence obligations they will face under the regulations, though it is an opportunity limited by the constraints of the act that the regulations will operate under.