HOUSE OF LORDS - United Kingdom Parliament

chaired by a former holder of high judicial office. The function of the
committee is to assure itself that all the provisions of a bill fall properly
within one of the categories previously indicated, and to report thereon
to each House. After taking evidence from the draftsmen responsible and
any departmental or other witnesses, the committee reports the bill to
the House of Lords with or without amendment. Where amendments
are made by the committee, bills are usually reprinted as amended.
Whether or not amended, they are then recommitted to a Committee
of the whole House. Thereafter consolidation bills follow the same
course as other public bills.
8.209 Amendments may be moved in the House to bills that have been
referred to the joint committee, provided that they are restricted to the
class of amendment that could have been moved in the joint committee.
Moving of stages of consolidation bills en bloc
8.210 Where the same stage of several linked consolidation bills is to be
considered by the House, the Lord in charge may, with notice (given by
means of an italic note in House of Lords Business), move the bills en
bloc. In the case of an amending stage, this is only possible if no
amendments have been tabled. Any member may, however, propose
that the bills be taken separately to the extent desired. The House can
also resolve itself into a committee on recommitment in respect of
several consolidation bills at once in order to debate any amendments
tabled; the committee reports only when all the bills have been
considered. In this case the procedure is applied by business of the
House motion. 1
Tax law rewrite bills
8.211 Tax law rewrite bills 2 are intended to make the language of tax
law simpler, but they preserve the effect of the existing law, subject to
any minor changes which may be desirable. Such bills are introduced into
the House of Commons, and are normally certified by the Speaker as
money bills. A joint committee of the two Houses considers the bills after
second reading in the Commons and the joint committee’s report is laid
before both Houses before the bill proceeds further in the Commons. In
1 Procedure 2nd Rpt 1991–92.
2 Procedure 4th Rpt 1999–2000. These bills were formerly known as “tax simplification bills”.
167