B035 - The Petition Procedure Bill

Trial Restructuring Of The Legislative Procedure Regarding Petitions And Their Subsequent Bill In The House of Commons Act 2014

Note: This Act does not increase nor decrease the power of the House of Commons. The Act only changes the procedure through which petitions, and subsequent bills, are passed through the House of Commons are still subject to external checks and balances. The powers of executive branch of parliament are not explicitly restructured by this Act but any conflicts between them and this Act will default to this Act as the letter of the law.

An Act to restructure the way our legislative procedure for petitions in the House of Commons. Greater control over petitions, and subsequent bills, is to be granted to all MPs than exclusively to the majority.

Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

Article 1
0: Terminology

1) Petition – A document highlighting an issue that must be dealt by a subsequent bill.
2) Half-seat – The number of votes required to achieve a majority for the average seat under the current electoral system of The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as of the most recent general election or by-election.
3). Candidate – A petition, bill, or set of amendments currently being considered.
4). Fixed Percentage – The minimum percentage of sentences in a candidate that may not be altered for altered candidates to be valid in the next stage in the legislative procedure.
(a) This percentage is initially defined by the average of all non-abstained votes in the previous stage of the legislative procedure for that candidate.
(b) This percentage is rounded down to align with the number of sentences in the candidate being processed. e.g. for an average vote of 66.93 and a bill with articles containing 94 sentences, the fixed percentage would be 65.96% or 62 out of 94 sentences.
5). Range99 vote – Each candidate is rated on a scale from 00 to 99.
(a) The single candidate with the highest average rating is the single winner passed to the next legislative stage.
(b) If allowed MPs may abstain from rating individual candidates.
(c) It is recommended that an MP's rating reflect the percentage of sentences in the candidate being considered they agree with.
6). Altered Candidates – The original petition/bill/amendments with any percentage of sentences altered up to the Fixed Percentage.
(a) Sentences may be completely rewritten, deleted, modified, or extended.
(b) No new sentences may be written.
(I) Exception: New sentences may be written in the Terminology section of the Article if necessary.
(II) Any addition to Terminology must coincide with an alteration to the bill/amendment which includes the term to be added.
(c) All altered sentences must be marked as such.
(d) All alteration within sentences must also be individually highlighted.
(7) MP voting habits – All votes an individual MP has cast on any candidate that passes through this legislative procedure.
(a) This refers solely to votes cast during an MP's current term in power.

1: Implicit Structure of Legislative Procedure

1) Petitions are presented and a vote is held on all current petitions.
(a) Each MP may present a petition or represent a previous petition.
(b) Any petition with a Half-seat of signatures is also considered.
(c) An Empty Petition is also presented to be voted on with the other petitions.
(d) The vote held is a range99 vote with abstaining allowed.
(e) The petition with the highest average rating is passed onto the next stage.
(f) If the empty petition wins no petition is passed onto the next stage.

2) Bills responding to the petition are raised and a reading is held.
(a) Each MP may raise one bill.
(b) Any bill with a Half-seat of signatures is also considered.
(c) Bill authorship is to be withheld until after stage 4.
(d) Lots are drawn to decide the reading order.

3) A vote on Bills is held.
(a) An Empty Bill is raised to be voted on with the other bills.
(b) The vote is a range99 vote with abstaining allowed.
(c) The bill with the highest rating is passed onto the next stage.
(d) If the empty bill wins the procedure ends and no bill is passed.

4) Altered Bills are raised and a reading is held.
(a) Each MP may raise one altered bill.
(b) Altered bill authorship is to be withheld until after it is voted on.
(c) Lots are drawn to decide the reading order.

5) A vote on Altered Bills is held.
(a) The Original Bill is raised to be voted on with the altered bills.
(b) The vote is a range99 vote with abstaining allowed.
(c) The altered bill with the highest average rating is passed onto the next stage.
(d) If the original bill wins it is passed onto the next stage.
(e) Bill authorship is revealed.

6) Amendments are raised and a reading is held.
(a) Each MP may raise one set of amendments.
(b) Any set of amendments with a Half-seat of signatures is also considered.
(c) Amendment authorship is to be withheld until after stage 8.
(d) Lots are drawn to decide the reading order.

7) A vote on amendments is held.
(a) An Empty Amendment is raised to be voted on with the other amendments.
(b) The vote is a range99 vote with abstaining allowed.
(c) The amendment with the highest rating is passed onto the next stage.
(d) If the empty amendment wins stage 8 & 9 are skipped.

8) Altered Amendments are raised and a reading is held.
(a) Each MP may raise one altered amendment.
(b) Altered amendment authorship is to be withheld until after the vote.
(c) Lots are drawn to decide the reading order.

9) A vote on Altered Amendments is held.
(a) The Original Amendment is raised to be voted on with the altered amendments.
(b) The vote is a range99 vote with abstaining allowed.
(c) The amendment with the highest rating is passed onto the next stage.
(d) Amendment authorship is revealed.

10). The Altered Bill + Altered Amendments are passed through the standard set of checks and balances and then come into force following Royal Assent.


2: Explicit Structure of Legislative Procedure

1) Stage 1 is to be followed on Friday Mornings.
2) Stage 2 is to be followed on Tuesday Evenings.
3) Stage 3 is to be followed on Thursday Mornings
4) Stage 4 is to be followed on Monday Evenings.
5) Stage 5 is to be followed on Wednesday Mornings.
6) Stage 6 is to be followed on Friday Evenings.
7) Stage 7 is to be followed on Tuesday Mornings.
8) Stage 8 is to be followed on Thursday Evenings.
9) Stage 9 is to be followed on Monday Mornings.
10) Stage 10 is to be followed immediately following.

3: Elaboration on MPs' Voting Method


1) Whenever a vote is mentioned in this Act it refers to range99 voting.
2) Instead of the previous ayes & nays, MPs will use 00-99 to rate each candidate.
3) MPs may still abstain, but it is done on a per candidate basis.
4) All votes will be cast using a twin ballot, in which MPs will receive a copy of an anonymous other's vote to prevent fraud.
5) MP voting habits will not be released until after the last bill has passed before the Next General Election.
6) MP voting habits may also be released if the public presents a half-seat of signatures requesting such, these signatures cannot include Government Officials.

4: Commencement, Short Title and Extent

1) This Act is Granted Temporary Passage into law for a duration such that it can be passed through its proposed legislative procedure as a bill.
(a) The Act is passed to Stage 4.
(I) The Act uses a fixed percentage set by (ayes)/(nays+ayes) of the ayes & nays that brought it into law.
2) Once this Act has passed through its own legislative procedure, it shall come into force immediately following Royal Assent.
3) This Act may be cited as the Petition Procedure Act 2014
4) This Act is set for review, during the first month following the General Election.
(a) This Act will be passed into Stage 3 and passed through the legislative procedure for review and update purposes.
5)  A generalised version of this Act may be raised for consideration at any point with the Speaker's Assent.
(a) This generalised version will extend the Petition Procedure Act 2014 to apply to all Legislation in the House of Commons.
6) This bill shall extend to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; and
(a) Shall be passed to the Welsh Assembly Government for their consideration; and
(b) Subject to changes made during the legislative process proposed by this bill by the National Assembly for Wales; and
(I) Passed to stage 3 as the only bill.
(c) Subject to successful passage through the legislative procedure;
(d) Shall come into force immediately following Royal Assent; and
(e) Shall be passed to the Northern Ireland Executive for their consideration; and
(f) Subject to changes made during the legislative process proposed by this bill by the Northern Ireland Assembly; and
(I) Passed to stage 3 as the only bill.
(g) Shall come into force immediately following Royal Assent; and
(h) Shall be passed to the Scottish Executive for their consideration; and
(i) Subject to changes made during the legislative process proposed by this bill by the Scottish Parliament; and
(I) Passed to stage 3 as the only bill.
(j) Shall come into force immediately following Royal Assent; and
(k) Shall be passed to any further devolved bodies created; and
(l) Subject to changes made during the legislative process proposed by this bill by that/those body(s); and
(I) Passed to stage 3 as the only bill.
(m) Shall come into force immediately following Royal Assent.



5: Limitations

1) This Legislative Procedure only applies to the House of Commons, not the House of Lords or any Houses that come into existence following the creation of this Act.
2) This Legislative Procedure currently only applies to Petitions, and their subsequent Bills.
3) The Explicit structure can be set to a more rapid pace for emergency legislation, but it must still pass through ALL legislative stages.
4) Altered sentence(s) in Bills/Amendments that contradict unaltered original sentence(s) do NOT take legal precedence.
5) Any Amendment(s) that contradict the content of its Bill take legal precedence over the Bill.
6). Any party, that has at least 1 MP, is limited to submitting one and only candidate per submission stage.
(a) This should be submitted through an MP selected by the party leader.