Preparing the bill for introduction – Checklist of tasks to be completed by department
8.1 As well as producing the Bill itself, there are a number of other tasks to be completed before the Bill can be approved for introduction. Bill teams should factor these tasks into their delivery plan and start work on them as early as possible. When Legislation Committee meets to consider the Bill before introduction, it will expect the department to have:
- Obtained collective agreement for all of the policy in the Bill;
- Prepared an L Committee Memorandum (based on the standard template) which summarises the content of the Bill and any other important issues which have been coverned in the annex documents described below;
- Produced a full set of Explanatory Notes to accompany the Bill (Parliamentary Counsel will advise, but the Notes are the responsibility of the department and work should start as soon as instructions have been sent to Counsel);
- Prepared a full Impact Assessment, agreed with the Better Regulation Executive and including the statutory Equality Impact Assessments on Race, Disability and Gender, for publication alongside the Bill;
- Prepared a Delegated Powers Memorandum for publication, explaining the purpose and justification of any such powers in the Bill;
- Considered the Bill's compatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights and set out the justification for any provisions that may potentially be considered to touch on Convention rights in an ECHR Memorandum;
- Considered any other legal issues, including the Bill'scompatibility with EU law (and made arrangements to notify the European Commission if necessary), and obtained Law Officers' consent to any retrospective provisions or early commencement of provisions;
- Reached an agreed position with the devolved administrations on any provisions that extend to them, including obtaining agreement in principle from the devolved administration in question to promote a Legislative Consent Motion after introduction, if an LCM is necessary;
- Obtained Queen's Consent or the consent of the insular authorities, if required;
- Addressed any finance, public expenditure or tax implications of the Bill and obtained the agreement of HM Treasury where necessary;
- Produced a Parliamentary handling strategy for the Bill and agreed it with the Government Whips' Offices in the Commons and Lords.
8.2 In short, all outstanding issues within Government should have been settled before introduction and the department must have a clear idea of how it intends to handle any other issues that are expected to arise during the Bill's passage.
