By the numbers: a statistical survey of Private Member's Bills.

• Author: Walsh, R.R.

Many Private Members' Bills are drafted by House of Commons legislative counsel but not all are later introduced in the House of Commons and few are adopted. Nevertheless, Private Member's Bills constitute a helpful educational tool even when they do not succeed in changing the law or making new law. This article looks at Private Member's Bills introduced over the last two Parliaments and offers insights about the use of this particular parliamentary tool.

Members of Parliament often complain about the limited opportunities for them in respect of legislative initiatives. Sometimes their concerns are expressed in terms of the resources provided to private Members for this purpose. Other times, the complaints relate to House procedure in respect of Private Members' Business.

A 1974 study noted a significant increase in the number of Private Member's Bills (PMB's) introduced in the House but no significant increase in the number enacted as law.

For the most part, the empirical data confirms the generally accepted view of the place of Private Member's Bills in the policy process. Policy decision-making is primarily the preserve of the Government which closely guides the schedule of the House of Commons to ensure the passage of its programmes....

Therefore, there are two basic perspectives from which PMB's can be assessed as to their saliency within the political system. Their role as a means of introducing policy is of little significance; however, their role of providing a means by which to express opinion ... is of some significance which should not be readily overlooked.(1)

An earlier British study of PMB's summarized the difficulties with PMB's, apart from "mechanical" problems relating to House procedure, as a function of "the modern conception of governmental responsibility:"

There is a widely-held supposition ... that the Government of the day, because it will be responsible for administering any new Act of Parliament, ought not to be expected to have to take responsibility for administering any new Act that it had not itself decided to introduce. The obverse side of this argument is that it is wrong for individual Members of Parliament, as individuals, to introduce measures for the administration of which they will themselves have no responsibility.(2)

In a later British study on PMB's, the author argues that the independence of the legislative branch from the executive branch, which all parliamentary systems are based on, can be usefully measured through PMB's because sponsoring a PMB is the only area where a private Member plays a key role in respect of legislation:

As such it represents almost a base line against which to judge the influence of the individual MP.... If, in this area, the Government still plays the key role, despite the constitutional position, then we have further important evidence of the limited nature of the legislature position. Very little would then be left to the ordinary MP.(3)

Despite their limited impact on lawmaking a statistical survey of PMB's illustrates a number of interesting features of this part of the parliamentary agenda.

The Numbers

Before looking at the statistics a few preliminary points must be kept in mind.

* Legislative counsel are required to give priority service to Members who are making their first PMB's request of the session. Otherwise, these Bills are drafted on a first-come, first-served basis.

* While there were 295 Members of Parliament in the 35th Parliament (1994-97), and 301 members thereafter, only individuals who were not ministers or Chair occupants constitute the client group for drafting PMB's. This group

consisted of 261 members in the 35th Parliament and 265 in the 26th Parliament.

* We must distinguish between new and recycled PMB's. A new bill is one that was not drafted or introduced in the House in an earlier session. A recycled bill was drafted and prepared for introduction, and in some cases was introduced, in an earlier session. A bill that is to be recycled must nonetheless be reviewed by legislative counsel and possibly redrafted in part where the law has changed. As a rule, it takes less time to prepare a recycled bill than it does to prepare a new bill.

As shown in the accompanying table in the first session of the 35th Parliament (1994-96), House legislative counsel received 438 requests for a PMB, of which 366 were for new bills and 72 for recycled bills. Of the 438 requests, 297 were completed and made ready for introduction in the House, of which 166 were introduced. Of these bills, half were drawn for debate, 14% were designated as votable, 8% were approved by the House on a vote at second reading, less than 2% were adopted by the House at third reading and received royal assent and became law. The table shows the corresponding figures for the later sessions.

[Part 1 of 4] Session 35/1 Dates Jan...