Lesson video

Good morning Year 10.

and welcome to this your second lesson of the citizenship module.

My name is Mr. Hanson, and I am one of the teachers here at Oak National Academy.

Now, before we start this lesson, can you please make sure that you have completed the pre-learning quiz that's available attached to this video, and then come back to this lesson.

You're also going to need some paper and a pen to write with, and I recommend keeping all of your notes in one place so that all of your citizenship material is easily accessible for when we need it in the future.

Now, as some of you might study citizenship as a standalone subject for a GCSE, and some of you might be covering citizenship as a core content for PHSE.

Regardless of which option that you are doing, the content that is available in both videos are suitable to cover both exam boards' specifications, and the national curriculum.

Some of you might not have done citizenship and realise what it is.

Well, what we do is we cover a whole variety of topics and issues.

We look at rights, we look at human rights, we look at law processes, we look at the courts, we look at the people involved, we look at diversity in the community, we look at the roles of the media.

we'll look at how our relationship with the wider world.

Hopefully, something that you will enjoy studying.

Now, this lesson today is primarily focused on Parliamentary processes and how the law is made.

Okay, so you may think a law just happened and a law just comes into force.

It's not quite as simple as that.

What we're going to do is we're going to explore who looks at the law and we're also going to look at how a law is brought into fashion.

So we're looking at this image here, now, the two images there, one is of the House of Parliament, and one is of a table tennis game.

I'll show you a little bit bigger.

Now, first of all, what I want you to do is just on the face of things, what links can you make between those two pictures? Are there any obvious links that you can make between those two photographs? Now, it might be the fact that Boris Johnson is a gold medalist waiting to happen.

But in essence of what do you want to know about the law and how laws are made, are there any questions? Are there any things that you can think of about the links between those two pictures? So what I'd like you to do is write down two questions you'd like to ask, or two questions you have about those photographs.

And then hopefully, by the time this lesson is over, we should have an answer for you.

So very much answering your own questions here.

Now, when you think about law being made, some of you, like I said, might think that law just happens.

Well, some might argue that it's not a straightforward easy process.

But what we're going to do is we're going to watch this video here and what I want you to do whilst we're watching this, you can feel free to pause my video at any point, but if you want to create a flow diagram of the processes and the sort of checkpoints, if you would, involved in the lawmaking process, or you could just summarise what you hear.

But one thing I want you to bear in mind is what you notice about all of these checkpoints.

You might have some questions again that you might want to ask.

And if you keep hold of your notes, we'll come back to these later.

So we'll keep referring back to this video.

So feel free to pause my video as I said, whilst we're watching this video so you can gather some notes, either as a flow chart or as a summary of information.

♪ Ping pong ping pong ♪ ♪ How the law is made ♪ ♪ Ping pong is a song ♪ ♪ We've got an idea is it one for the law ♪ ♪ Announcing is so easy ♪ ♪ But are the public sure ♪ ♪ It's mainly the Prime Minister ♪ ♪ And his team who have ♪ ♪ Administered the idea now a bill ♪ ♪ Hoping to contribute their will ♪ ♪ So off it goes to Parliament ♪ ♪ So they can make a case ♪ ♪ For legal argument ♪ ♪ But if in the consulting ♪ ♪ It appears as controversial ♪ ♪ Then they take it to the ♪ ♪ Commons to jump the other hurdle ♪ ♪ To the Lords ♪ ♪ To the Commons ♪ ♪ Then the Queen ♪ ♪ Ping pong that's the game of legislating ♪ ♪ All the Commons, the Lords and the Queen ♪ ♪ Ping pong a complicated self-debating ♪ ♪ The Lords ♪ ♪ The Commons ♪ ♪ The Queen ♪ ♪ That the easier way to think of law ♪ ♪ If the idea is agreeable ♪ ♪ The Commons ♪ ♪ The Lords ♪ ♪ Her Majesty ♪ ♪ It's the usual way to make a law ♪ ♪ But it's no guarantee ♪ ♪ Ping pong ping pong ♪ ♪ How the law is made ♪ ♪ Ping pong ♪ ♪ This is a song about how law is made ♪ ♪ Ping pong ping pong ♪ ♪ How the law is made ♪ ♪ Ping pong ♪ ♪ This is a song ♪ ♪ This is a song ♪ ♪ So they've taken their bill ♪ ♪ To the House of Commons ♪ ♪ To deliberate the topics ♪ ♪ Opposition now respondent ♪ ♪ A small group of MPs ♪ ♪ Can check with expertise ♪ ♪ The report they'll promote ♪ ♪ Now the House can ♪ ♪ Cast their vote ♪ ♪ So off it goes to the ♪ ♪ House of Lords ♪ ♪ Where they check the finer ♪ ♪ Points are now in accord ♪ ♪ There's some feedback ♪ ♪ From the checks and ♪ ♪ Now they take a final poll ♪ ♪ A check between the ♪ ♪ Houses that they still ♪ ♪ Agree in full ♪ ♪ To the Lords ♪ ♪ To the Commons ♪ ♪ And the Queen ♪ ♪ Ping pong ♪ ♪ Investigating, legislating ♪ ♪ The Commons ♪ ♪ And the Lords ♪ ♪ And the Queen ♪ ♪ Ping pong ♪ ♪ A complicated self-debating ♪ ♪ The Lords ♪ ♪ The Commons ♪ ♪ The Queen ♪ ♪ That's the easier way to make a law ♪ ♪ If the idea is agreeable ♪ ♪ The Commons ♪ ♪ The Lords ♪ ♪ Her Majesty ♪ ♪ It's hard not to do it in this rhapsody ♪ ♪ But what if they don't ♪ ♪ Agree that much ♪ ♪ Accuse the other house ♪ ♪ Of being out of touch ♪ ♪ What will happen if ♪ ♪ They throw it back ♪ ♪ The process starts again ♪ ♪ And then they go back ♪ ♪ To the Lords ♪ ♪ To the Commons ♪ ♪ And the Queen ♪ ♪ Ping pong ♪ ♪ Investigating legislating ♪ ♪ All the Commons ♪ ♪ The Lords ♪ ♪ And the Queen ♪ ♪ Ping pong ♪ ♪ A complicated self-debating ♪ ♪ The Lords ♪ ♪ The Commons ♪ ♪ The Queen ♪ ♪ That's the easier way to make a law ♪ ♪ If the idea is agreeable ♪ ♪ The Commons ♪ ♪ The Lords ♪ ♪ Her Majesty ♪ ♪ But some of the ways ♪ ♪ To pass a bill ♪ ♪ The House of C ♪ ♪ To the Lords ♪ ♪ To the Commons ♪ ♪ And the Queen ♪ ♪ House of Commons ♪ ♪ The Lords ♪ ♪ And the Queen ♪ ♪ A complicated self-debating ♪ ♪ The Lords ♪ ♪ The Commons ♪ ♪ The Queen signs the bill ♪ ♪ If you want to make a law ♪ ♪ And the bill becomes the law ♪ ♪ The Commons ♪ ♪ The Lords ♪ ♪ Her Majesty signs the bill ♪ ♪ And the bill becomes a law ♪ ♪ Ping pong ping pong ♪ ♪ How the law is made ♪ ♪ Ping pong ♪ ♪ This is a song ♪ ♪ This is a song ♪ Okay, so hopefully you have some form of diagram or some form of explanation.

Now, I did exactly the same as you whilst we were watching that video and I created.

well, a simple diagram, or a.

well, you can judge for yourself on how simple that is.

But, there are some key terms that have come up in that video, and there are some key people that have come up in that video.

And we're going to look at who they are and what they do.

So, who are the people that are involved in making laws for the United Kingdom? Well, when we look at this, there are something called three separate branches of the law.

And they all have a role in shaping the UK law, and I use that word loosely because you may think that they all have something to do with making the law, but that's not necessarily true.

Now, we have three separate branches.

One is the legislature, one is the executive, and one is the judiciary.

Now, if we focus on the legislature first, this is Parliament.

So these are the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and it's something known as a bicameral house.

There are two separate houses to the House of Parliament.

Now with the House of Commons, they are 650 members of Parliament that have been elected.

It's us as voters in the United Kingdom that have put them there, and the those are there to represent our views.

Now, on the contrary, the House of Lords are not elected by the British public.

So there is an argument on whether or not they should actually take place in the lawmaking process, because you've got to look at who's appointed them and why they are in their position that they are.

If we focus on the Executive, this is the Prime Minister and his or her cabinet.

So with the COVID-19 pandemic, if you've been watching any of the daily briefings that have been on the news, a different member of the cabinet has been holding these briefings each day.

And the members of the cabinet are responsible for holding a position of authority within government.

So you have education, you have health, you have the foreign secretary, and indeed you have the Prime Minister himself.

Now the Prime Minister gets his power from the Monarch, from the Queen.

We have an uncodified constitution in Britain, and the Queen gives her power, almost, to Boris Johnson at the time.

But obviously, that will change if and when Boris is not elected to be Prime Minister at the next election.

But whoever holds the position of Prime Minister at that time will be able to act on behalf of the Queen.

Then finally, we have the judiciary.

Now judges in England and Wales, although they don't make law directly, they do sort of interpret law in different ways.

Now, all of us that study English language as a GCSE are very good at inferring, and judges do just that.

They infer what the law was intended, or what was meant by the creation of said law.

Now, between you and your friends, and us as teachers and colleagues, we're always looking and thinking slightly different about pieces of information, and judges do that when they read a piece of legislation.

When they look at a new law or an old law, they might apply it in their court slightly different to another judge.

Now, this can create problems and there is lots of arguments between legal professionals on whether or not the legislature, the executive and the judiciary should remain coherent branches, so they all work together.

Or whether or not they should all be separate.

Now, that's another topic for another lesson, but just think about what sort of problems do you think all three of these people have when working together? Would they work better without being a part of the same team? But then what problems would that create? Would there be any problems that were created then? Again, something we can explore at a later date.

But those are the three people, or the three branches, that are responsible for shaping our law in the United Kingdom.

So now that we know who's involved, how does the process actually work? Well, before it gets to Parliament, there are a couple of stages.

So we have there the green paper and the white paper.

Now, the green paper is just a simple idea of what the government intends.

It is just a thought bubble.

It is just what do they want to happen? Now, if you've ever seen the Queen's Speech, which happens at the start at every parliamentary session, which is usually every year, you'll see that the government sets out their ideas.

They set out what they want to intend in that parliamentary session, and what laws or what agenda they have.

Now, this might be the forms of green papers and ideas that they want to put forward.

And once they've got an idea of whether or not those will be successful or not, they publish it into a white paper.

Now, that is just the formation of those ideas into a formal document.

That is when the bill starts to take substance.

Now, before a law is published, before it gets its seal of approval, it's known as a bill.

And if you ever see things on the news, they will refer to stages of law as a bill through Parliament.

Now, once the white paper has been published, it gives the basis for consultation.

And once that formation has happened, it can go to either House in Parliament, and it can be presented as a bill for debate.

Now, what's mentioned in here is the fact that a bill can start its journey in either House.

So it can either start in the House of Commons, or it can start in the House of Lords.

Now, as the video made reference to, the usual process is to start in the House of Commons.

Now, government in charge at the time, usually are the people who bring about trying to bring a new law into force.

So they are the ones that propose the idea of a bill.

And if they do that, it's introduced by the ministers for that party.

However, if you're not part of the government, if you are the opposition, you can also try and bring about a change in the form of a Private Members' bill.

Now, the problem with that is if you are the opposition, you do not hold a majority in government.

And if you don't hold a majority that means you're going to find it very hard to pass your bill.

Usually with the government, they have the support of each other.

So the green paper is the governmental policy, perhaps from the executive, and the party will vote as instructed by their leader on the whole.

They will usually pass their own bills.

If it starts in the House of Lords, this is something called Private Peers' bills.

But we won't go into that too much, but the journey can start in either House is the main point that we need to take away from this slide.

Once we've satisfied that and we've got the bill to Parliament, it goes through a series of stages.

Now, the first reading is very simple.

All they look at is the title of the bill, and it's just a formality stage really.

All members that are available are free to look over the draught bill.

So the very, very first reading is a very, very simple look at the bill.

The title is read out.

So it might be the new theft bill.

And from that each member can then look at the bill in its draught form.

There is no vote on the bill.

There is no debate on the bill.

It is simply just for people to view.

The debate comes in the second reading.

So this is a slightly more detailed reading, and the main principles of the bill are discussed.

Now, usually the government minister who's brought the bill will open the debate by setting out what he wants or what she wants from the bill, and explains what the bill is about.

Now, the opposition at this point can look at the bill and respond to it.

Now, no amendments at this stage can be made.

And we use the word amendments for any changes.

So there's no changes made, but whilst they're debating it in Parliament, they can start to think about the proposals that they want to put forward to amend.

So they'll have an idea of what they don't like or what they're not happy about.

And then when it gets to the committee stage, this is where amendments can be put forward.

Now, the committee stage isn't an entire branch of Parliament.

It is a smaller, usually around 20 MPs, and they usually have some sort of knowledge or expertise in that area.

Now, there is more scrutiny here because each line is considered in turn.

So however long the bill, they will spend line by line looking at each sentence, each clause, and looking at the details of it.

They can then put amendments forward here.

And once they have done that, once the amendments have been tabled, the government can then decide what they want to do.

This will take form in the stage of a report.

So the committee have sat, they've made changes, they've made their amendments, and then they produce a report and it goes to this report stage.

So this is where it goes back to the House, and the new bill is presented to them with the amendments on it.

Now, at this point here, they don't read the bill in full, they only look at the amendments that have been made, and the only discussion is around those amendments.

If there's been no amendments made, this is just a purely formative stage.

It's just a very formal stage of the bill.

The bill might also be called here a consideration in the Commons.

So they're having a look at the changes that have been put forward.

Once the changes of the amendments have been read, it goes to the third reading, and this is what the bill would look like if it was published.

So this is like the final draught, if you would.

So in the third reading, a vote can be had here.

And it's usually the last discussion stage.

Both Houses have to agree on the bill in full.

However, once you get to the third reading end, you might think job done.

And that's not the case, because if a bill starts in the House of Commons, it's then got to go to the House of Lords and satisfy the same stages of the test.

If it starts in the House of Lords, it's then got to go to the House of Commons.

And again, satisfy the same stages of that test.

If the bill goes all the way through the House of Commons, and starts with the first reading in the House of Lords and so on, and they don't like it, or they don't think it is necessary, or they don't think it's appropriate, it can then go back to the House of Commons.

This is where that term Parliamentary ping pong comes into effect, in that it will go between House to House to House, until they get to the end of the third reading stage in both Houses and they agree in full.

That can take a very long time as you can imagine, because even if it's just one line, it has to go back through and satisfy all the stages again.

However, if we get an agreement between both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and we are successful in our third reading stage, that can then move forward.

It goes to a stage called Royal Assent.

Now, we've mentioned the Queen before.

She's the head of the constitutional monarchy.

So she gives her powers to the Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister acts on her behalf.

Now, if Parliament have agreed on the stages of a bill and agreed on the draught proposals in that bill, the Queen will sign off that bill in the form of Royal Assent.

She gives her stamp of approval.

Now, it's worth mentioning here that the Queen can reject a proposal, but she doesn't.

She does have that power to say no, but she never does because she puts it into the trust of the people.

We have elected these people so she lets them run their business.

Once that bill receives Royal Assent, it becomes a law.

And once it becomes a law, it's now referred to as an Act of Parliament, it's published on the statute books.

So you can visit there if you go to legislation.

gov.

uk you can see all the pieces of legislation that have been published.

However, what I'm hoping you've noticed is there might be a few problems with that process.

Or indeed, you might be thinking that it's a wonderful process in itself.

But what have you noticed about these stages? What I want you to do is I want you to pause the video now and complete the following task.

What are the main advantages and disadvantages of the UK law making process? What I'd very much like you to do is come up with two reasons why you think that the process has advantages.

So the good points about the process.

And two reasons why you think there are disadvantages.

Two things that you think don't just quite fit.

Now, as a bit of a challenge what I also want you to do is once you've got those two disadvantages, how would you make those advantages? What would you do to amend those disadvantages to make those advantages? So pause the video here, draw yourself a table or a mind map, however you want to present it, and then restart the video once you have completed that task.

Now, here you've got advantages and disadvantages.

Now, these are.

Which way we going, that way.

These are my advantages and disadvantages, and there's not an exhaustive list, okay? So when I've been thinking about the processes for my advantages I've got it's quite thorough.

And the fact that it goes through so many checkpoints and stages mean that there should be little mistakes.

But also if you've got this time in between each stage, it allows for that time for reflection, it allows for that time for pausing and perhaps considering, that the changes that you are putting forward aren't quite appropriate, or indeed, that you've missed something.

It also allows people to have a say.

So all of the members of Parliament get a say, and then it's checked by a second House.

So people who haven't been elected, more eyes getting to see this draught piece of legislation.

On the other hand, you might think that those points are disadvantages and that it takes a lot of time.

These bills can take days, they can take weeks, they can take months, they can take years to pass through, depending on how complex they are, how long they are, and whether or not they're up for agreeance.

So if there's this minor point, it can go back and forth, and that ping pong between Houses can take a very long time.

Also the fact, the House of Lords aren't elected.

So why do they get a say in what happens in our country if they haven't been elected into their position? Also, do government react to urgent issues quick enough? Does that process allow for government to act quickly? If those are things that you have thought of, wonderful, great, well done.

And if not, make sure you write those down because all the knowledge you get here can be used in future lessons.

Now.

Now, you've got the stages, what can you remember? As our final task for today, what I want you to do is again pause the video, and can you name the stages involved in lawmaking? So again, I've suggested you might want to produce a flow chart, and you've got pictures there to help you.

Or, you could just write a summary of the processes from start to finish.

And again, what I want you to do is challenge yourselves.

Which stage in this Parliamentary process is the most important do you feel? Or, do you feel that there is one where you could get rid of it? If you were the lawmakers, would you create a law to get rid of a stage, or would you add stages? So again, pause the video, consider the following task, and then restart once you're done.

So, as a finish to today's lesson, what have we learned today? Well, we've learned this term Parliamentary ping pong.

We've learned that a law, a bill, can go backwards and forwards between the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

And until they both agree, they won't stop.

We've looked at the three branches of government.

We've looked at the legislature, we've looked at the executive, and we've looked at the judiciary, and the people that are involved in making the law.

We've then looked at the stages of a bill, all the way from the first reading to Royal Assent.

And we've looked at why that happens.

And we've also considered the processes and the problems that the processes have.

We've looked at the advantages and disadvantages of our Parliamentary process in the United Kingdom.

At this stage that's our lesson done.

I hope that you found it very informative, but make sure that you take the end of lesson quiz, which is again, attached to this video.

And I will be with you again this time next week for our second lesson on how law is made.