How does the House of Lords work? Jump Start Video Lecture | How does UK Parliament's Education Service works? - Personal Learning

so you know about the Commons right
they're busy getting on with things
running the country but what about the
lords what are they up to
well let's take a look at that so the
Lords and the Commons are the two
chambers of the houses of parliament and
it might seem like the two are always
trying to one-up each other but that's
not actually the way the Lord's and the
Commons work together because they're
both working towards the same thing the
Lord's has three main tasks to question
and challenge the work of government to
help shape laws and to investigate
issues through committees and debates
every day the Lord has the chance to
question the government grilling them on
their actions and decisions this is an
important way to hold the government to
account if a particular event is
happening like a forum war or health
crisis they can ask government what they
propose to do the Lord's also forms
committees to investigate and explore
important issues these committees will
then produce papers in order to keep
everyone informed and up-to-date so
that's one element of the Lord's role
but how do they actually write laws to
make sure they work well first we need a
bill a draft of a law that needs to be
agreed on by both houses so imagine the
government wanted to reduce the legal
age of buying alcohol to 16 and started
the bill in the Commons when the bill
reaches the Lord's they have a look at
what the government has proposed this
starts with the first reading where the
Lords have their first chance to read
through the proposed bill they then
start the key work of the bill by
debating it thoroughly in what's called
the second reading they look at the
positives and the negatives there could
be an increase in public disorder or
teenage pregnancy or it could reduce
binge drinking and the strain put on
health services
next stage is committee stage where the
bill is thoroughly examined line by line
and changes are made
there are many clauses loopholes and
amendments to consider and it's
important they're all thoroughly
examined plus there's still two stages
where changes can be made there's still
more fixing and plugging loopholes to do
in the report stage and third reading
you might think enough already
just pass the bill or chuck it out yet
it takes time
committee stage took 15 days on twenty
twelves Health and Social Care bill so
why does it take so long well for one
there's no time limit for the Lord's to
consider bills and making laws work
takes time especially when a bill is
urgent the house stayed in session for
thirty four and a half hours to debate
the prevention of terrorism bill in 2005
they even had camp beds in the corridors
after these stages each house may have
more arguments about each other's
suggested changes this is ping-ponging
where the bill bounces between the
houses until everyone agrees after any
final amendments the bill gets the stamp
of approval a formality and it's our law
it may take a while but it's worse than
doing properly so now you know about the
Commons and the Lord's what do you think