In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

a hybrid bill (which becomes a hybrid instrument or Hybrid Act) is a government measure which affects a particular individual or organisation in a different manner to other individuals or companies in the same class; it thus bears some resemblance to a

private bill Proposed bills are often categorized into public bills and private bills. A public bill is a proposed law which would apply to everyone within its jurisdiction. This is unlike a private bill which is a proposal for a law affecting only a single p ...

. No definitive rules dictate whether a Bill is hybrid in substance; the decision is entrusted via the Speaker, to one or more House of Commons officials designated as the 'Examiners of petitions for Private Bills'. It is thus possible that a government unexpectedly finds itself promoting a private measure, upsetting its planned legislative timetable. The government tends to initiate these on behalf of other bodies and authorities. The default procedure is they are treated like a

for the beginning of passage through the

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

, laid before select committees of both houses empowered to hear petitions from individuals or bodies opposing it. Nevertheless a government can dispense with this additional procedure if it can muster a Commons majority to do so. The bill is then treated as a public bill. It thus proceeds to possible amendment before a

select committee Select committee may refer to: *Select committee (parliamentary system), a committee made up of a small number of parliamentary members appointed to deal with particular areas or issues *Select or special committee (United States Congress) *Select ...

in either or in both Houses. Examples have been those to construct the

Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (french: Tunnel sous la Manche), also known as the Chunnel, is a railway tunnel that connects Folkestone (Kent, England, UK) with Coquelles ( Hauts-de-France, France) beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. ...

, the

Dartford Crossing The Dartford-Thurrock River Crossing, commonly known as the Dartford Crossing and until 1991 the Dartford Tunnel, is a major road crossing of the River Thames in England, carrying the A282 road between Dartford in Kent in the south and Thurr ...

Crossrail Crossrail is a railway construction project mainly in central London. Its aim is to provide a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system crossing the capital from suburbs on the west to east, by connecting two major railway ...

and

High Speed 2 High Speed 2 (HS2) is a planned high-speed railway line in England, the first phase of which is under construction in stages and due for completion between 2029 and 2033, depending on approval for later stages. The new line will run from its m ...

. Their use originated as part of British

parliamentary procedure Parliamentary procedure is the accepted rules, ethics, and customs governing meetings of an assembly or organization. Its object is to allow orderly deliberation upon questions of interest to the organization and thus to arrive at the sense or t ...

, but the procedure is also occasionally used by other parliaments and assemblies set up on a similar vein to Westminster. Hybrid instruments have found an ideal purpose in legislating on behalf of railway companies and transport agencies to obtain authorisation for major projects voted to be in the national interest and which would affect many private interests significantly. Statutory instruments can be hybrids. When opposed, such instruments are referred to the

Hybrid Instruments Committee The Hybrid Instruments Committee is a select committee of the House of Lords in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The role of the committee is to look into all opposed hybrid instruments (i.e., a statutory instrument that, but for its enabling ...

to report to the House on whether a select committee should be appointed to consider the petition or petitions against the instrument. In Canada, they are specifically disallowed by Beauchesne's ''Rules and Forms of the House of Commons of Canada'', which states that "According to Canadian standing orders and practice, there are only two kinds of bills – public and private. The British hybrid bill is not recognized in Canadian practice."

References

External links

Hybrid instruments
at the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hybrid instrument Statutory law Parliament of the United Kingdom Proposed laws of the United Kingdom