Lesson video

We're going to look at today is how laws are made in England.

We're going to look at where they're made and who makes them and hopefully you'll enjoy it.

There's a couple of videos in to watch as well.

What I'd like you to do before we start is get yourself a pen and paper, get yourself a space, be ready to learn and then we'll start the lesson.

Let's go.

Okay, so how are laws made? These are things we going to learn this lesson.

We're going to find out how we make laws in England.

So the laws and the process that an idea for a law goes through lots of proposal goes through before it's made into a law.

We're also going to find out what is the role of parliament in lawmaking and how parliament makes laws in the UK.

We're going to look at that and we'll see that in the video later on and we also are going to look at the two sorts of laws that we talk about in citizenship teaching and that's criminal versus civil law.

So, is a new law actually needed.

Now I want you to imagine that something has changed.

So perhaps a new government has been elected on a manifesto to introduce new policies or campaigners have been making a big effort to change the law.

So for example, it could be mobile phone usage whilst driving, marriage equality or climate change.

That means the law needs to change.

These are some reasons why government might create or change the law.

So let's have a little look at mobile phone usage.

Now years ago before people had mobile phones, we could drive our cars.

We'd listened to the radio.

We'd talked to people in the car.

We were still distracted by things but it wasn't quite the same as having a phone.

Then when everybody starts to get their own phones we had far more road traffic accidents that were related to people, texting and calling people whilst they're on their phone.

So they had to change the law and actually make it legal to text and drive and to use your phone less it's hands free.

I think that's important to remember that lots of things change through time like technology and we really have to change laws as we go along.

So where do they actually make most of the laws in the UK? Well, this picture is the houses of parliament and I've stretched it a bit to fit in the slide so it looks a little bit short and fat but it isn't normally like that.

So you can look on the internet and find out a bit about that.

Now at this point, we're going to be watching a video and when we watch the video I'd like you to think about these two questions.

The first question is, what are the names of the two chambers in the house of parliament and which is the elected chamber in the house? Would like you to note down those two questions.

So pause the video so you can note it down and then when you're ready you can watch the video, we'll carry on with the film and you can find the answers to the questions.

Parliament isn't just some big old building by the Thames.

Parliament makes laws, debates issues of the day, represents the views of people across the UK and checks and challenges the work of the government.

Wait a minute, so parliament isn't the same as the government.

Well it's the government that takes a leading role in the running of the country but there's also a bigger picture.

So there's the House of Commons that's where the government sits along with the opposition who sit opposite them of course.

This is the elected chamber and it's made up of MP's who represent all 650 UK constituencies.

Then there's the House of Lords, made up mostly of life peers who were appointed for their knowledge and experience.

There is no political party with overall control in the Lords and many of its members the Crossbenchers and the bishops, are non-party political.

Finally there's the Monarch.

Her role is mainly ceremonial these days but she does still sign every new law.

So what does parliament do all day? Inside the debating chambers the big issues are discussed new laws agreed and the prime minister is questioned.

While a host of committees made up of small groups of parliamentarians scrutinise the work of government departments, check the details of new laws and ask experts and the public as you for ideas and evidence to shape their inquiries.

Representing the people, passing laws, debating issues and checking and challenging the work of the government.

It's all in a day's work for parliament.

So did you find the answers? Well, there are of course the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

They are the two chambers in the House of Commons and the elected chambers it's.

Sorry.

They're the two chambers in the house of parliament, the House of Commons and the House of Lords and the elected chamber is the House of Commons.

So I hope you got those right, give yourselves big tick on both of those answers if you must have found that.

So when we looked at parliament, we looked at the two different things and all of those people that were in there are in there to make sure we run the country the way we want it to run and those laws that help us to do that and it's important that we understand that not all laws are made in parliament but most of them are there, okay? Now, in parliament we've got members of parliament and they come from different areas in the UK.

So here we're going to look at what is a constituency.

As you can see Great Britain and Northern Ireland are divided up into 650 areas and there's approximately 100,000 people in each area called a constituency.

Each constituency has a Member of Parliament who is elected by the people who live there who are over 18 at the time of voting.

Now if you look really closely you can see somewhere like Doncaster, for instance seems to have huge areas and if you go to cities like Birmingham or London there's lots of tiny areas.

Each one of those is represented by a single Member of Parliament.

But the reason that there's big areas and small areas is because it's about the number of people, not the amount of land that it covers and that's really important to realise that.

So, your Member of Parliament is working in the House of Commons representing you.

Even though you are under 18 and your parents may not have voted for them, If they're your constituency MP, then they are your representative.

Now you can find out quite easily who these people are and if you go into the parliament website, the UK Parliament website and you search using your postcode, you can find out the name of your Member of Parliament.

You can write or you can email to your Member of Parliament and their contact details should be there as well and you can communicate with them about any issue that is business of parliament and you can even complain about the Prime Minister.

So, what do MPs do all day? Well, their main job is to represent the people and they debate issues of the day and MPs vote on laws and they also put questions to the government about their decisions.

So it's called holding the government to account, where they ask the government, what have they done about a certain issue? What are they going to do about it? And often they'll say whether they agree with the government or not and it means that the Prime Minister and his ministers have to justify what they're doing and why they're doing it.

Both houses in parliament share responsibility for making and shaping laws.

But where do laws come from in the first place? A bill is a proposal for a new law or to change an existing law and comes from lots of places like, governing and opposition parties, public inquiries, civil servants or campaign groups.

So how does an idea get turned into a law? Imagine the government wanting to place great controls over the internet.

A proposal called a Green paper is published which presents the government's ideas for future policy.

This is open for public discussion with interested groups like, internet service providers and others likely to be affected.

Once findings are gathered a White paper is published which outlines a firmer plan for government policy.

Cabinet ministers must agree whether the proposal is taken forward.

Once agreed a bill is drawn up and the minister responsible for the policy introduces the bill to parliament for debate.

MPs and members of the House of Lords comments on, debate or amend the bill through several stages and at the end of the process, apart from very rare circumstances, it must be agreed by both houses.

It's then passed to the Monarch who gives formal approval or royal assent and the bill becomes law called an Act Of Parliament.

Okay, you've watched the video.

So, let's do a little task and this is to complete the sentence task.

I'd like to choose the correct words.

It's probably best if you pause the video right now, this video, so that you can keep this on the page and I'd like you to fill in the sentence, using the words from the bottom table.

Okay, so a proposal for a new.

What is called a bill? Bills are usually introduced by the.

Blank.

Although some proposed by individual.

The bill has to pass through a number of what? Before it becomes an act of what? Each.

Has to pass through three.

In both the house of.

And the house of Lords.

So pause the video copy down the whole sentence, filling in the words.

Hello again, did you do that? How are you getting on? What I'd like to do is get your pen ready to give yourself a tick If you've got it right.

If you've got it wrong, I'll note down the correct word instead.

So don't worry if you have got it wrong you can just make a correction.

So, let's read this, a proposal for a new law is called a bill.

Bills are usually introduced by the government although some are proposed by individual MP's and the bill has passed through a number of stages before it becomes an act of parliament.

Each bill has to pass through three readings in both the House of Commons and the house of Lords.

So if you've got that right, give yourself lots of ticks, make corrections if you need to.

So what have you learnt so far about laws and how they're made? Is that they're actually passed through lots of different stages and that it's quite a long process.

They can't just propose a law one day and it be law the next, it has to.

Lots of people have to have a say in it and that's part of our democracy.

So, when laws are also created they fit into one of two categories and in citizenship we talk about these two main categories and that's civil law and criminal law.

And English law can be divided into these two main types.

Laws about crimes such as theft, vandalism, assault which the government enforces, are part of what is called criminal law and laws concerning your private rights and your dealings with other people, such as borrowing and lending money, are apart of what it's called civil law.

So let's have a look at a couple of examples.

I've got a little task for you here.

We've got four examples of criminal laws and civil laws are different examples and I'd like you to say which example fits under which law.

So we've got law example one, which is a teenager was so angry they punched the shop window, smashing it.

Law example two, your grandparent tripped on a wobbly paving slab in the street and broke their arm.

Law example three, a couple's relationship has ended and they've decided to divorce and law example four, a person smuggled cannabis into the country, hidden in their car.

Now, pause the video and when it's paused I'd like you to write and decide which is which.

Which example would come under criminal law? And which example would come under civil law? So spend a few minutes working that out, reading it through considering which is which and writing down your answer.

Okay, let's see how you got on.

These are the answers to the task.

I've put it into two columns.

So we've got criminal law and civil law and in the criminal law column, we have got two examples and the first one is, a person smuggled cannabis into the country, hidden in their car.

Now it is illegal to possess and deal cannabis and so, it is a crime and you would be dealt with by the police and then onto the courts.

The second one in criminal law is, the teenager who was so angry they punched the shop window, smashing it.

Although that's against the owner of the shop that is still a crime, things that are violent come under criminal law.

So that's right give yourself a tick there.

In the civil law column we've got two examples as well.

A couples marriages has ended and they decided to divorce.

Well, that isn't a crime.

You can divorce under English law but you need to go and see your solicitor about that and then you go to courts and you apply for that but it's not a criminal court, it's the family court and so it's civil law.

The next example, your grandparent tripped on a wobbly paving slab in the street and broke their arm.

Now, this is the problem of the council.

They have to provide safe pavements but you.

They wouldn't get into trouble with the police with this, it's up to your grandparents to contact the council and make a complaint and this comes under civil law.

Okay.

So, what have we learned this lesson? So, we know now that our laws and the process that a proposal goes through before it's made into a law is in the Houses of Parliament and it goes from the House of Commons and backwards and forwards, House of Lords until it is made into law and then the Queen gives it royal assent that means she says yes, this law is okay it can go into English law.

What is the role of parliament in lawmaking? Well, we looked at that in the videos in the two videos.

Why do we have two main types of laws? So we looked at criminal versus civil law and both examples.

So I hope you are happy with both of these.

So I'd like you to take-away a couple of tasks.

We've got two, I'm sorry, three activities I'd like to do.

The first one is to use the internet to find out how an MP votes in the house of commons.

There's quite a lot on the news about that at the moment.

So it's definitely worth going to have a look at that.

I'd like you also to challenge yourself and draw a diagram of the house of commons and I want you to say, who sits where in the house.

Then finally, I'd like you to go to the UK parliament website and research to find out what topics your MP has spoken about.

Then you have to go to Hansard which is on the UK parliament website and there's a record of everything that happens in the houses of parliament every day and you can just put in a topic and find out which MP's have spoken about it.

Now also, you could find out how you MP votes.

So have a think and read about their votes and think whether or not your MP votes in the way that you would want them to and have a look at that.

So pause this, you can note down the things you want.

You can take a screenshot if you wanted to do that and then you can use this as a takeaway task to keep you busy for the next few days.

Well there you go.

I hope you've enjoyed your lesson today.

I'm looking forward to seeing you in the future.

There's more lessons about the law and also how you can get active and involved in changing laws yourself in the future.

So I'm looking forward to seeing you again.

Take care, bye.