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 Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

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. A private bill is a proposal for a law affecting only a single person, group, or are ...

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

Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (), sometimes referred to by the Portmanteau, portmanteau Chunnel, is a undersea railway tunnel, opened in 1994, that connects Folkestone (Kent, England) with Coquelles (Pas-de-Calais, France) beneath the English Channel at ...

, 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 completed railway project centred on London. It provides a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system, akin to the Réseau Express Régional, RER in Paris and the S-Bahn systems of German-speaking countries, kn ...

and

High Speed 2 High Speed 2 (HS2) is a high-speed railway which has been under construction in England since 2019. The line's planned route is between Handsacre – in southern Staffordshire – and London, with a Spur line, branch to Birmingham. HS2 is to ...

. Acts that were deemed to be hybrid bills include: *

Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977 The Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977 (c. 3) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that nationalised large parts of the UK aerospace and shipbuilding industries and established two corporations, British Aerospace and Br ...

* Channel Tunnel Rail Link Act 1996 *

Crossrail Act 2008 The Crossrail Act 2008 (c. 18) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that authorises the construction of the Crossrail railway from Maidenhead and Heathrow Airport to Shenfield and Abbey Wood. The legislation was introduced by the t ...

* High Speed Rail (London–West Midlands) Act 2017 * High Speed Rail (West Midlands-Crewe) Act 2021 Their use originated as part of British

parliamentary procedure Parliamentary procedures are the accepted Procedural law, rules, ethics, and Norm (sociology), customs governing meetings of an deliberative assembly, assembly or organization. Their object is to allow orderly deliberation upon questions of inte ...

, 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 enablin ...

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 of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace ...

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