A member of parliament’s legislative motion, called a private member's bill or a member's bill in some parliaments, is a proposed law introduced by a member of a legislature who is not acting on behalf of the executive government. In most countries with a parliamentary system, most bills are proposed by the government. In the United States and other countries in which the executive is formally separated from the legislature, there is no mechanism for the executive government to directly introduce its own legislative proposals, and members of the executive are not part of the legislature. All bills are simply introduced by members of the legislature, and the concept of the private member's bill does not apply.
In the United Kingdom and other countries that follow the Westminster System such as Canada and New Zealand, an individual member of parliament (MP) who is not a Government minister is called a private member (of parliament) (or backbencher) and therefore such an MP's legislative motion is called a private member's bill. The MP who introduces a legislative motion can be a member of a party represented in the government (cabinet) or in the opposition. It can also be introduced by a crossbencher. Usually, in such countries, the overwhelming majority of bills introduced are proposed by members of the cabinet, and most of the legislature's time is spent dealing with such bills, which are called "Government bills". However, some parliamentary time is regularly set aside so that backbenchers and crossbenchers may also introduce bills.
A private member's bill is not to be confused with a private bill, which is a bill that only affects an individual citizen or group.
The United Kingdom parliament has a long history of enacting private member's bills. In contrast, the Oireachtas (parliament) of the Republic of Ireland rarely passes private members' bills, with the overwhelming number of bills being passed being introduced by members of the cabinet.
Read more about Private Member's Bill: United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, India, Elsewhere
Famous quotes containing the words private, member and/or bill:
“Each man’s private conscience ought to be a nice little self-registering thermometer: he ought to carry his moral code incorruptibly and explicitly within himself, and not care what the world thinks. The mass of human beings, however, are not made that way; and many people have been saved from crime or sin by the simple dislike of doing things they would not like to confess ...”
—Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)
“It was a maxim with Mr. Brass that the habit of paying compliments kept a man’s tongue oiled without any expense; and that, as that useful member ought never to grow rusty or creak in turning on its hinges in the case of a practitioner of the law, in whom it should be always glib and easy, he lost few opportunities of improving himself by the utterance of handsome speeches and eulogistic expressions”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“The measure discriminates definitely against products which make up what has been universally considered a program of safe farming. The bill upholds as ideals of American farming the men who grow cotton, corn, rice, swine, tobacco, or wheat and nothing else. These are to be given special favors at the expense of the farmer who has toiled for years to build up a constructive farming enterprise to include a variety of crops and livestock.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)