Act of Parliament (UK)

An Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom is primary legislation passed by the UK Parliament in Westminster, London. An Act of Parliament can be enforced in all four of the UK constituent countries (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). As a result of devolution the majority of acts that are passed by Parliament increasingly only apply either to England and Wales only, or England only. Generally acts only relating to constitutional and reserved matters now apply to the whole of the United Kingdom. A draft piece of legislation is called a bill. When this is passed by Parliament and given Royal Assent, it becomes an act and part of statute law. Acts of Parliament are classified as either "public general acts" or "local and personal acts" (also known as "private acts"). Bills are also classified as "public", "private", or "hybrid". Public general acts form the largest category of legislation, in principle affecting the public general law applying to everyone across the entire United Kingdom, or at least to one or more of its constituent countries of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, or Wales. Most public general acts proceed through Parliament as a public bill. Occasionally a bill is treated as hybrid. Local and personal Acts of Parliament (United Kingdom) Private acts are either local or personal in their effect, applying to a specifically named locality or legal person in a manner different from all others. Private bills are "usually promoted by organisations, like local authorities or private companies, to give themselves powers beyond, or in conflict with, the general law. Private bills only change the law as it applies to specific individuals or organisations, rather than the general public. Groups or individuals potentially affected by these changes can petition Parliament against the proposed bill and present their objections to committees of MPs and Lords." They include acts to confer powers on certain local authorities, a recent example being the Canterbury City Council Bill, which makes provisions relating to street trading and consumer protection in the city.

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Related concepts (6)

Constitution of the United Kingdom

The constitution of the United Kingdom or British constitution comprises the written and unwritten arrangements that establish the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as a political body. Unlike in most countries, no attempt has been made to codify such arrangements into a single document, thus it is known as an uncodified constitution. This enables the constitution to be easily changed as no provisions are formally entrenched; the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom recognises that there are constitutional principles, including parliamentary sovereignty, the rule of law, democracy, and upholding international law.

Parliamentary sovereignty

Parliamentary sovereignty, also called parliamentary supremacy or legislative supremacy, is a concept in the constitutional law of some parliamentary democracies. It holds that the legislative body has absolute sovereignty and is supreme over all other government institutions, including executive or judicial bodies. It also holds that the legislative body may change or repeal any previous legislation and so it is not bound by written law (in some cases, not even a constitution) or by precedent.

Human Rights Act 1998

The Human Rights Act 1998 (c. 42) is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which received royal assent on 9 November 1998, and came into force on 2 October 2000. Its aim was to incorporate into UK law the rights contained in the European Convention on Human Rights. The Act makes a remedy for breach of a Convention right available in UK courts, without the need to go to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg.