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Last updated: 08 July 2009
Importance of providing sufficient resource
6.1 Only very short and straightforward Bills can be managed without setting up a separate, dedicated Bill team. A properly resourced team is vital to the successful preparation of legislation and is one of the factors which will be considered by Legislation Secretariat in advising Legislation Committee on the content of the programme and in monitoring Bill preparation. Bill management must not be seen by senior management as an overhead – providing sufficient staff resources, including administrative capacity, is an integral part of the process and should not be ignored or left to chance.
6.2 Many others beyond the Bill team will be involved in work on the Bill. Policy/legal teams closely involved in the Bill may also need to be equipped with extra resources for the lifetime of the Bill.
6.3 Departments should not wait until all policy is finalised before appointing a Bill manager. This may seem a diversion of resources while departments are still engaged in producing a white paper and finalising the detail of the new policy, but good planning and preparation at this stage is crucial for the success of the Bill later on.
6.4 Even if the policy to be included in the Bill is still at an early stage, as soon as a Bill has been allocated a slot in the programme a Bill team manager should be appointed to ensure that good progress is made on the Bill. Particularly where the Bill includes more than one policy area and a number of policy officials and legal advisors are working on different sections of the Bill, it is important to have a dedicated Bill manager who is not directly responsible for any of the policies in the Bill.
6.5 The role of the Bill manager is to maintain an eye on the Parliamentary timetable and an objective overview of the entire Bill, rather than getting caught up in the detail of the policies. The Bill manager must drive forward work on the Bill which may be spread across several different areas of the department (and possibly several departments). S/he must take responsibility for resolving any issues that may delay the Bill's progress and ensure all workstreams deliver on time. Given the large number of people involved in a Bill it is also important to have a single point of contact through which to channel all communications.
6.6 The Bill manager will be responsible for day-to-day management of all Bill workstreams – good project management and communication skills are critical and the Bill manager (and Bill team) should be recruited with these requirements in mind. The Bill manager will work closely with the Bill Minister and with senior officials in the department and will need to be able to provide them with robust advice. They should be of sufficient seniority to deal robustly with colleagues across the department and in other departments, for example when it is necessary to request speaking notes, briefing and other material for the Minister at very short notice.
6.7 The Bill manager should be responsible to a departmental project board for the delivery of the Bill and its supporting documentation. The Bill manager must ensure that all those involved in work on the Bill are clear about the tasks they have been allocated and the deadlines for completing them. S/he should maintain regular contact with all the key players to monitor progress against deadlines and actively manage risks to the project, escalating risks to the project board where necessary.
6.8 The Bill manager must keep track of every aspect of the Bill's development. Depending on the number of people involved in the Bill, the Bill manager should chair regular meetings of all those in the department(s) involved in the Bill or circulate progress updates to ensure everybody is kept up to date. Regular bilaterals with policy leads and legal advisors, and through them with Parliamentary Counsel, are also likely to be useful.
6.9 In most cases the Bill manager will be supported by a small administrative team, usually consisting of an AO, one or two EOs and an HEO (for larger Bills). Even for a very large Bill it is not recommended to go beyond this, as the key to an effective Bill team is good communication within the team, and the larger the team the harder this becomes.
6.10 A Bill team should be small enough to function as a “hub” for the Bill but large enough to cope with the burden of work at the busiest period (though there will be no avoiding working longer hours than normal during those peaks and Bill teams must be prepared for this). 3-4 people should be sufficient for the vast majority of Bills; the very largest Bills might necessitate a Bill team of 4-5 people but anything larger than this will begin to be less effective.
6.11 A strong supporting team is required to keep on top of large volumes of paperwork, coordinate large amounts of briefing and speaking notes from across the department and respond to requests from Ministers at short notice. On smaller Bills, the Bill team is also likely to have to get involved in policy negotiations and preparing speaking material for amendments.
6.12 The Bill Manager will want to consider allocating specific responsibilities within the Bill team, for example one who (among other things) is responsible for the delivery plan, one who is responsible for stakeholder management/communications strategy and liaison with Press Office, and one person who is responsible for liaising with the Business Managers (Legislation Secretariat and officials in the Government Whips' Offices in the Commons and Lords). Someone within the Bill team should also have responsibility for ensuring that detailed records are kept throughout the process and that copies of all briefing and speaker notes are filed.
6.13 For “joint” Bills where more than one department has a core interest in the Bill it is recommended that one department assumes the lead on the Bill with the Bill team based in that department but working very closely with colleagues in the other key departments.
Project management – delivery plan and risk register
6.14 While previous experience of working on a Bill is desirable – and it is recommended that any Bill team include at least one person who has worked on a Bill before – good project management skills are essential. Even the smallest of Bills is a project relying on a large number of different people for successful delivery, with fixed milestones such as the date of introduction and a fixed end date (end of the Parliamentary session) that mean compromises on scope may need to be made. Bill teams should use project management tools to manage their Bill as they would any other project.
6.15 All Bills need a delivery plan and a risk register and these should be approved by the project board and by Ministers. Parliamentary Counsel will not start drafting a Bill until a realistic delivery plan has been agreed with the department, and Legislation Committee will seek assurances from Bill Ministers that appropriate tools are in place to manage work on the Bill.
6.16 For each part of the Bill, the delivery plan should set out who is responsible for doing what and the timetable for:
6.17 The delivery plan should help the Bill team to identify any quieter periods that can be used to prepare ahead for subsequent stages and for the various products that are required post-Royal Assent, and to ensure filing is in order.
6.18 The Delivery Plan should also cover resourcing – budget, administrative and most importantly staffing. A poorly resourced Bill team that cannot adequately support its Bill Minister through Parliament will not only result in poor legislation, it will reflect badly on the department in a very public way.
6.19 Once a Bill is awarded a place in the provisional programme, Legislation Secretariat will call a meeting with the Bill team and Parliamentary Counsel to discuss the delivery plan and timetable for sending instructions to Parliamentary Counsel. This will be followed by further meetings as needed, as work on the Bill progresses. If deadlines are missed, the Bill's place in the programme may be at risk, so Project Boards should be careful to ensure that they are not signing up to targets that are unrealistic or undeliverable.
6.20 Some departments have developed standard tools for their Bill teams (Bill teams should check with their departmental Parliamentary Clerks), but there is no set format – Bill teams should use whatever tools are most helpful to them in managing the work. Tools for managing amendments can be downloaded from the chapter on amendments later in this guidance.
6.21 The risk register should cover risks to the Bill before and after introduction, actions taken to minimise risk and contingency plans should a risk be realised. Major risks at the drafting stage will include: change in policy direction from (new) Ministers; lack of resources; slippage in sending instructions to Parliamentary Counsel; significant redrafting required as a result of public consultation.
6.22 Risks post-introduction will later form the basis of the Parliamentary handling strategy that must be produced for Legislation Committee when it considers the Bill prior to introduction. This will need to include any issue where there is likely to be significant dissent from the Government's position, what steps are being taken to win the argument with stakeholders, what concession the Government would be prepared to make in order to avoid an outright defeat, and whether, if defeated, the Government would seek to reverse the defeat outright or to offer a concession. During Parliamentary stages, things can move rapidly, so contingency plans (a concession strategy) should be in place at an early stage.
6.23 Departments should take a reasoned judgement as to what form of project board is appropriate given the size, complexity and political priority of the Bill in question, but, as with any project, it is critical for success that senior management demonstrates absolute engagement with and commitment to the Bill right from the start.
6.24 All but the very smallest Bills should be overseen by a project board made up of the senior officials with an interest in or responsibility for a Bill's delivery. The Board should usually be chaired by the senior official most directly responsible to Ministers for delivery of the Bill. Ultimate responsibility for directing the work and making appropriate official-level decisions and judgements will fall to the Chair.
6.25 Any Bill will fall within the area of responsibility of at least two members of the Senior Civil Service – the senior official responsible for the Bill's policy content and the senior legal advisor. Often, however, a Bill will cover policy areas that fall under the responsibility of a number of senior officials, or will be worked on by legal advisors reporting to more than one senior legal advisor. In such circumstances, all those senior officials whose teams are contributing significantly to the delivery of the Bill should be represented on the Board.
6.26 Where a Bill covers issues that are the responsibility of more than one department, the project board should reflect interdepartmental interests. Where a Bill relates to the work of an executive agency or NDPB, those bodies should also be represented.
6.27 It may be useful to include one board member without direct responsibility for delivery of the Bill, for example somebody from the department's central strategy unit, to provide an external perspective on progress or “project assurance”. It may also be helpful to include a customer representative on the board, i.e. a representative of a stakeholder group affected by the Bill.
6.28 The Project Board's role is to ensure that the Bill remains on course for delivery to the timetable agreed between the Bill Minister and Legislation Committee. It will take an active interest in overseeing progress and addressing any delays or problems with the quality of the work In particular, the Board will:
6.29 The Board may need to meet more frequently at certain stages of a Bill:
6.30 Members of the Board and particularly the Chair may also need to be involved in between formal meetings to address urgent issues.
6.31 The official(s) with lead responsibility at working level for the policy or policies in a Bill must be fully engaged and sufficiently resourced in order to be able to meet the exacting deadlines of Bill work, as well as carrying on routine work. Lead policy officials must deliver policy instructions to departmental legal advisors on time and respond quickly to draft clauses and questions posed by Parliamentary Counsel. They will be responsible for producing an Impact Assessment for the policies for which they are responsible, and will also need to contribute to the Explanatory Notes to the Bill.
6.32 Once the Bill is introduced, policy leads will continue to play a central role in developing solutions to outstanding or arising policy issues, continuing engagement with stakeholders, and drafting notes on amendments and other briefing material for Ministers. They will need to be available to attend debates and Committee sessions.
6.33 Because of the burdens of Bill work, which can be considerable, on top of normal responsibilities, for the life of a Bill some policy teams may require additional resources.
6.34 Departmental legal advisors take the policy proposals for the Bill and express them as legal material. As such, legal advisors are responsible both for providing legal instructions to Parliamentary Counsel (based on policy instructions provided by policy leads) and for responding to material produced by the Parliamentary Counsel working on the Bill. Legal advisors must also be sufficiently resourced to meet Bill deadlines, as any slippage in delivery of instructions to Parliamentary Counsel can jeopardise the Bill. This may mean deferring work on other matters. It is important that resourcing is addressed in the Bill Delivery Plan and that the senior legal representative on the project board is kept aware of any problems and particularly any resourcing issues.
6.35 Departmental legal advisors should work with the relevant policy leads to ensure that the Bill Delivery Plan contains realistic targets for delivery of instructions to Parliamentary Counsel against which progress can be monitored.
6.36 On a Bill involving more than one legal advisor, it is usually helpful for one lead legal advisor to be identified as a contact point both for Parliamentary Counsel and for the Bill manager and to be responsible for co-ordinating legal advisors' input, keeping track of progress on the legal side and identifying any problems as they emerge, working in partnership with the Bill manager and clearing speaking notes before they are passed to Ministers. The importance of this is due to the ruling of Pepper v Hart where Parliamentary material may be used to assist in the interpretation of legislation in cases where such legislation is ambiguous or obscure.
6.37 The role of the legal team does not diminish once the Bill is introduced. It is vital that they are sufficiently resourced to engage in policy discussions as issues arise, to draft instructions on amendments and to very quickly clear speaking material, briefing etc. They will also need to attend debates and Committee sessions.
Ensuring the Bill team is properly equipped
6.38 Bill teams will be working under great pressure for much of the time, in particular during Parliamentary stages when they will need to respond to non-Government amendments and provide briefing for the Bill Minister at short notice. This section offers some practical tips to help make Bill work easier.
6.39 Parliament will not postpone its scrutiny of the Bill because the photocopier has broken down – the importance for a Bill team of excellent IT, printing and copying facilities cannot be underestimated. Bill teams will often need to print/copy a large amount of material at short notice, for example several complete sets of notes on amendments and clause stand part notes immediately before a Ministerial briefing or Committee session, and nor should Bill teams underestimate how long this task can take. The Bill team will need to have dedicated printing and copying facilities (for its own benefit but also for the benefit of others as the Bill team may well need to use the printer and copier for several hours at a time). It should also have ready access to back-up printers and copiers.
6.40 Bill teams should arrange with their department's IT support for the Bill team, policy leads and legal advisors to be priority customers so that requests for assistance can be dealt with urgently. Bill teams should also request an increase to their email inbox limit, as once Bill drafts in pdf format and scanned-in copies of amendments from the order paper start coming in these will fill up an inbox very quickly.
6.41 There will be occasions when neither the Bill Team, nor policy leads will be located in the same building as the Minister(s). On occasions, especially during the Committee stages, the Bill team will need to be close to the Minister and Parliament and therefore space, such as a meeting room, should be reserved.
6.42 The Commons Public Bill Office will send each day's selection list (showing both amendments selected, and the grouping) by email normally to Parliamentary Counsel rather than direct to the Department, as soon as it is finalised. In the Lords (where there is no selection), groupings are handled by the Government Chief Whip's Office.
6.43 Most Bill documents and papers will be supplied on the “all follows” list which should be arranged with TSO (nicholasguy.gcs@tso.co.uk, 01603 695196) by departmental Parliamentary Branches, but the Bill team may on occasion need to ask TSO to print additional copies of the introductory print of the Bill, the Explanatory Notes, or later the Act, and should ensure they have a budget for this (note there is also a small charge for each item received on the “all follows” list).
6.44 Whiteboards or the use of Excel spreadsheets will be useful for tracking progress of draft clauses and later on speaking notes for amendments.
6.45 There will be times when the Bill team, and their policy and legal colleagues, will be required to work long hours, so Bill managers should ensure that they understand their department's policy on overtime payment, travel and subsistence or make special arrangements if necessary, for example for booking taxis home after any late finishes in Parliament.
6.46 A great deal can be learned from departmental colleagues who have worked on Bills in the past. Parliamentary Clerks should have their contact details, and may also have formal “lessons learned” documents from previous Bill teams.
6.47 Bill teams and prospective Bill teams will also benefit from some of the formal training courses on offer. Each year the National School of Government organises two half-day Bill team seminars, the first in spring (preparing a Bill) and the second in early autumn (taking a Bill through Parliament). Bill teams are encouraged to attend.
6.48 The National School of Government also organises tailored training sessions on Bill work in departments, on request throughout the year. Bill managers are encouraged to run one of these sessions, to give the departmental officials involved in the Bill a broad introduction to Bill work. It will be helpful for policy leads, who may only be involved in a small part of the Bill, to understand the wider context and appreciate some of the pressures which the Bill manager may be facing. Further information can be obtained from the National School of Government website [External website].