The Development Process of Government Policies

I am going to explain the development process of the government policies.

Meetings

If there is going to be a new policy it has to be shared around and everyone has to give their ideas on it. They are discussed in big government meetings like cabinet meetings and parliamentary committees and subcommittees. If the idea is good enough and everyone has agreed to the new idea then the procedure becomes more formal then this idea is put into a green paper.

Green papers

The green papers are important documents they are about a proposed change in the law that may affect everyone this interest parties to gather their views on a chance and open up a period of consultation and a debate this means that they want to talk about the idea as say if it is good or bad for the community and the law. These debates take the form of public meetings, specialist consultation meetings or open enquiries. Sometimes these discussion make it clear that the green paper is not good wan will not be brought into law and other times they will agree to this but not everyone has to agree. If it is agreed then it is put on white paper

White papers

The white papers are very important and they contain a set of formal proposals on the new Law or policy that will be used as real laws, but the white paper is only a draft of what will become bills in the later stages of development

Bills

The bill is a very important it is the beginning of life for a new law tare a different kind of bills

• Public bill

The public bill is usually a proposal for a large piece of legislation that will have an effect on the whole country, These bills are created by the government in power at the time so the government has to decide but the ones that are started from green papers are normally allows interested parties to consult and comment upon the ideas put forward. Examples of public bills are the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and the Theft Act 1968.

• Private bill

The private bill is typically proposed by a local authority or Large corporation and this will only have affect on people who proposed it in the first place. For example a private bill could be used to build new land or new roads or new motorways an Example of a private bill involving a large corporation the Henry Johnson, Sons and Co Limited Act 1996which allowed the said company to transfer to France.

• Private members bill.

The private member bills are prepared by ordinary members of the parliament these parliament members have to enter a ballot in order to be guaranteed the time in Parliament that it takes to introduce a bill. This means time is very important sometimes the private members bills fail this is Manley due to lack of time for the bills to be debated. Sometime the private member bills draw a lot of attention to different public concerns for example for instance the Wild Mammals (Hunting with Dogs) Bill drew massive public attention even though it did not succeed in becoming law in that parliamentary session. Examples of private members bills are the Abortion Act 1967 and the Activity Centre (Young Persons Safety) Act 1995.

Representation from outside government

Ways in which the new public policy can be influenced from outside government include:

• Letters to MPs

• seeing an MP in their surgery

• taking into account the views of the opposition.

The legal process used to create legislation

There are seven different stages for a bill to become a law I will briefly explain them.

First reading

Firstly there is a notification made to the House that proposal made, then the title of the bill is read out to them and the bill is made into lots of copies and are made available for everyone to see. Sometimes there still might be a little debate is people are not happy. These debates are really done to make it far for everyone to have their say.

Second reading

Now these proposals contained within the bills have been debated, then the house has an important job to decide whether to send the bill forward for the next stage. Most of the time the bill will go through this stage.

Committee stage

The committee stage is when the bills are examined in detail and and the committee considers the changes it would recommend to the House. Most bills are dealt with in standing committees of about 20 MPs; however, if a bill is introduced late in the parliamentary session it may be sent to a select committee which can hear evidence from outside individuals or agencies. Committee members are chosen have to be qualified and have personal or professional interests.

Report stage

After the committee has seen the report they report back to the house with suggestions and new ideas and some amendments to the bill. These new ideas are voted and debated on by the house

Third reading

Now the bill is shown to the House of Commons and they will have the final vote to decide whether to accept it or to fail it. Then if it passes it will be sent to the next stage

House of Lords

Now the bill goes through similar procedure within the House of Lords. . It must pass all of these stages in one session of Parliament. The house lord is not allowed to reject any legislation but is allowed to retain some powers like the ability to stop bill which is said to extend the government for longer than 5 years 3 weeks. The house of commons has more power than the House of Lords this is because the House of Commons are selected by the public and the public are important and have their right to say.

Royal assent

When the bill is successful it is royal assent the house of lords and the House of Commons it is passed on to the monarch for approval and consent. They will set a date for the law to become official It is not usual for the monarch to give consent in person; this is normally given by a committee of three peers including the Lord Chancellor.

P5 – Describe with two examples how government policy making can be influenced by factors outside the government

There are many things that effect policy factors outside government I will be talking abut two of these effects.

Immigration

Immigration is a big part of UK it has made a lot of cultures and made people think differently about the way they live and the food they eat. Immigration is a good thing for UK because carry out specialist jobs where there is a shortage of workers, for example in Factories, event some of the less wanted jobs immigrants will except them. The policy on immigration must adapt to an increased global climate of movement. It must also take into account the people who choose to emigrate abroad and try to strike a balance between individuals coming into the UK and those leaving it. The laws and policies on immigration in the UK are strict and are contained in the Immigration Act1971, although there have been several updates and amendments since that time.

Financial constraints

Finance is a very big factor that affects the government finance affects every aspect of government and public services operations. The main things the government can do it introducing a new law weighed up against the benefits. If the government doesn’t have the money to implement the law it might implement a partial version of it or not implement it at all. Also if there is finance problems the country can go into recession and then there will be problems everywhere and this might cause people to start hating the government, so they could be a change.

P6 – Describe how two government policies have impacted upon different uniformed public services

The government can also have big impacts on the public services these can cause many different issues I will talk about two of these impacts.

Equal opportunities

Equal opportunities are very important now in the public services Equal Opportunities legislation, such as the Equal Pay Act, the Sex Discrimination Act and the Race Relations Act has fundamentally changed the way the services interact with their officers and the public. The government has decided to change these laws to ensure to public service have fair rules and are equal to all people no matter their colure their nationality or their gender. There are many for example:

Lots of public services are trying to recruit more women and ethnic minorities this is a policy is made to help people feel that the UK is more of an ethnic minority also the fire fighters have nearly 98% white males if some people see this they might think it’s not fair but this could be for many reasons maybe they are scared to join, but the fire service now is helping other minorities to join the services. This policy designed to enrich the service and make it more representative of the general public, although there is still some way to go on this.

Also the policies have affected the army there rations pack will now contain halal meals for Jews and Muslims.

Financial reductions or increases

The main thing for the public services is finance they will not be able to do their job without finance there is so many things the public services cannot do without this. The public services need financial from the governments for many things like buying and maintain new equipment like weapons for the army and police also the tanks and vehicles used by the army. And for the fire service they need the money for their fire equipment. Also the main usage of finance is used on paying the public servants who help their country. So you can see that financial reductions or increases are very major factor of the government’s policies and this is one of the major policies.