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Reading. This is usually done to clarify any amendments the government
has agreed to make to its bill.
If the bill is voted for in the Lords, it is immediately sent for Royal
Assent. However, if any amendments have been made in the Lords, the
bill is returned to the Commons which debates each amendment the Lords
have made. The Commons can:
- accept the amendment
- amend the Lords amendment
- completely replace a Lords amendment with one of its own - reject a
Lords amendment.
If any of the last three are done in the Commons, the bill returns to
the Lords with an explanation as to why the government has taken the
course of action it has. This is a ‘statement of reasons’. The Lords can
accept this and pass the bill. However, it can also reject the ‘statement of
reasons’. When this happens, the amendments concerned (and therefore
the bill itself) go to and from the Commons and Lords until an acceptable
compromise is reached. If both Houses fail to agree on their differences,
the bill dies. This is an extremely rare event and has only happened on
very infrequent occasions since 1945.
There are two major restrictions on the Lords ability to kill of a bill.
1) The Lords may not delay a bill for more than one parliamentary
session. A bill lost in the Lords in one session but then passed by the
Commons in the next parliamentary session, would automatically receive
the Royal Assent regardless of whether the Lords opposed it in that
session.
2) The Lords does not deal with any "Money Bills". These pass
through the Lords without discussion.
After the First Reading, Second Reading, Committee Stage and
Third Reading in the Commons and the input by the Lords, a bill (if it has
passed through all the stages) is ready for the Royal Assent.
Without the Royal Assent, a Bill cannot become law. In this process,
the monarch formally signifies assent to the bill so that it becomes an act
and part of the law of the land. The Queen uses Norman French as part of
tradition – "La Reyne le veult" ("The Queen wishes it"). The last time the
monarch refused to give Royal Assent was in 1707 with Queen Anne. It is
all but impossible to imagine a situation whereby the Queen would refuse
to give Royal Assent to a bill that has gone through such a thorough
examination. Such a refusal would spark off a major constitutional crisis.
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