Explain the parliamentary process in both the house of commons and house of lords in the making of an act of parliament

The parliamentary process begins with one of the houses proposing a change in the current legislation, or a proposal to bring in new legislation. A bill can start in the House of Commons or House of Lords, which ever house decides to propose a new bill, it must be approved by the other house. The first stage of the process when a bill is proposed is the first reading. This is purely a formal stage, in this stage, no debate on the bill takes place. The next stage is the second reading. Here, the ministers debate the main principles of the bill, the minister who has fronted the bill will explain its main functions and purposes to allow others propose changes to it. Also, a vote will take place here based on the above to see if the bill will pass to the next stage. The preceding stage is the committee stage. Here specialist MP's who have extended knowledge of the basis of the bill will reflect on its strengths and they can propose amendments which can range from adding some slight provisions or some whole new ideas. The next stage in this process is the report stage. For both houses, this takes place in the chamber. For the purposes of this stage, only amendments are discusses based on the experts proposals passed on from the committee stage. The third reading is the next stage, this stage allows for another general discussion of the bill but unlike with previous stages, no amendments are allowed. In the later stages of the process, both houses must agree on the bill. This means that both houses must view the bill and reach an agreement, sometimes the bill may move back and forwards numerous times until said agreement, this is known as 'ping-pong'. However, it is possible that the House of Commons could use the Parliament Act, which allows the bill to bypass the Lords, this comes with much scrutiny. A bill that has been agreed by both parties must then be given Royal Assent. This means the Queen must approve and sign off the bill. Normally this is a straight forward process and the Royal will give assent, the last Monarch to reject a bill was Queen Anne in 1707. Rejecting a bill as the Monarch would be deemed undemocratic.