legislation

“1. an act does not immediately come into operation after it receives Royal Assent.

may I ask you why it wouldn’t?”

Built into the acts are dates and time limits – sufficient to enable those interested to sort out their affairs before their current activities become, say, non-profitable or even illegal

So different parts of new legislation come into force over a period of time

“2. that “the electoral system means that the statute-making process responds to public opinion””

I’m not sure that I fully understand that point. I’m struggling with the use of the expression “statute-making process”

I can agree that the passing of new statute is responding to some extent on public opinion – I was reading today on the BBC website that it’s 50 years since the repeal of the Sexual Offences Act that made it an offence for two adult males to have sexual relations

That surely is an example of Parliament passing legislation in response to public opinion

But I wouldn’t have quoted that as an example of “the statute-making process”

Maybe the point is that statute is passed by Parliament’s two houses, one of which is an elected body and thus those members of parliament both individually and collectively have to respond to the wishes of their electorate

That’s what appears to be causing some reluctance on the part of Parliament to sort out the machinery necessary to arrive at a smooth exit from the European Union

For those of you that voted for Brexit, can you show me a single new hospital that has been built (one per week) by the funding from Britain’s exit – what happened to those 350 million GBP that we were going to save each week?

But the members of the House of Commons are duty bound to follow the wishes of their electors

Is that what that quote means? I wonder