PITY II - How Legal Proposals Become Law

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How Legal Proposals Become Law

HOW PROPOSALS FOR NEW LEGISLATION REGULATING
THE USE OF HUMAN ORGANS AND TISSUE WILL BECOME LAW
{A user-friendly version provided by Margot Brazier, Retained Organs Commission}

Prof. Margot Brazier N.B. This is my account of how laws are made. Opinions expressed on any Human Tissue Bill or the process of making laws, are mine alone. They are personal and in no sense official!

All proposals for new legislation are carefully scrutinised by a committee of the Cabinet. That committee has (1) to approve the proposal in principle and (2) to approve a detailed draft of the proposal - a draft Bill. So the Cabinet committee and the government's legal advisers will review a draft Human Tissue Bill.

The minimum I expect the Bill to do

Regulate all uses of human organ and tissue whether removed during a person's life {surgical tissue} or after a post mortem
Cover transplantation as well as organ retention and prohibit misuse of DNA
Require explicit consent from either the deceased himself or herself or from a close relative to the retention of human organs or tissue after a hospital post mortem and to retention after a coroner's post mortem for any purpose other than to ascertain the cause of death
Require explicit consent to uses of surgical tissue unconnected to the treatment of living patients
Set up a Human Tissue Authority with a majority of lay members to license and regulate collections of human organs and tissue
To provide for monitoring and inspection of such collections
To introduce criminal penalties for unlawful uses of human organs and tissue.

How will the Bill become an Act of Parliament?

At the beginning of each Parliamentary year {session} the government announces which major new laws {Acts of Parliament} they propose to introduce in that year {session}. This is done in the Queen's Speech opening Parliament. The Parliamentary year starts in November! The Queen's Speech this year will be delivered on Wednesday November 26.

Some time later the Bill will be published and presented to Parliament for its First Reading. This stage is purely formal. There will be no debate in Parliament. The Bill can be introduced into either the House of Commons or the House of Lords. I am going to assume "our" Bill starts in the House of Commons. What the publication of the Bill will do is allow us all to see the details of its provisions and decide whether it meets our objectives and expectations.

Health Warning!

Bills of this sort are technically very complicated. They can be difficult to understand without very detailed study. Bills are published with Explanatory Notes, but the DoH {with ROCs help} will try to provide a user-friendly guide to any forthcoming Human Tissue Bill.

After the Bill receives its First Reading, it proceeds to a Second Reading when MPs debate the Bill. A Bill can be rejected at this stage. This is rare in any case and highly unlikely with a Human Tissue Bill. What MPs can do is express their views and doubts about particular parts of the Bill. Once the Bill has had its Second Reading, money can be made available to prepare to implement the Bill. So the DoH could then start to set up a 'shadow' Human Tissue Authority.

The Bill is then sent to a Committee of MPs who go through it clause by clause. This is the crucial stage for a Human Tissue Bill. Members of the Committee can suggest amendments, which are then debated by the Committee. Some of the deliberations of the Committee may be in public. The Committee stage is your chance to alter the Bill. But it is also the opportunity for other groups to do so too e.g. by pressing for presumed consent. Any changes must be made via MPs.

The Committee votes on all proposed amendments to the Bill. They present a Report to the House of Commons. At the Report stage other MPs can suggest amendments or vote down amendments proposed by the Committee. In really difficult or controversial cases, the Bill may get sent back to the Committee and the Committee will be told to try again!

Once the Report stage is complete the Bill receives its Third Reading and is sent off to the House of Lords to go through the same process in the Lords. The House of Lords may well scrutinise the Bill more thoroughly than MPs. If the Lords disagree with MPs and try to introduce new amendments usually a compromise is reached.

The Bill then goes to the Queen for Royal Assent. No monarch since Queen Anne has ever vetoed a Bill!

Once the Human Tissue Bill is the Human Tissue Act {2004 if it does go ahead in the coming session} it will not necessarily be brought into force immediately. Some aspects may require some preparation, such as the writing of Regulations and Orders, Codes and procedures before it can be brought fully into force.

The rather slow progress of a Bill can be frustrating. But to work, an Act of Parliament needs to be prepared and reviewed carefully. The Human Tissue Act 1961 was rushed through Parliament and what a mess that caused.

PITY II (Parents who have Interred Their Young Twice) is the parents' support group set up in the wake of the organ retention scandal
at Alder Hey Hospital (Liverpool, UK). It aims to provide self help support and advice to affected families.

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