Procedure on Private Bills.
The standing orders that govern procedure upon private bills are much more elaborate and comprehensive than those relating to public bills. They fill in print five times as many pages; and although custom and precedent play an important part, still the printed rules approach very nearly to a code of private bill procedure.[368:2]
Petition and Notice.
Before a private bill is introduced, a petition therefor is drawn up, and in order to give any one interested an opportunity to prepare his objections, notice of the petition must be given, in October or November, in The Gazette, in appropriate local newspapers, and in some cases by posters upon the roadside. Personal notice must also be served in December upon the owners of land directly affected, and if the petition is for leave to build a tramway, the consent of the local authority must be obtained.[369:1] Plans of the work proposed must also be deposited for inspection both at Westminster and with some local officer.[369:2] The petition, with the bill itself, must be filed on or before Dec. 17 in the Private Bill Office of the House, and a copy must be delivered to the Treasury, the Local Government Board, the Post Office, and to any other department whose duties relate to the subject involved.[369:3] The petitioner is also required to file estimates of cost, and to deposit a sum equal to four or five per cent. of the proposed expenditures as a guarantee fund for the benefit of persons who may be injured by a commencement, and failure to complete, the work.[369:4]
Examiners of Petitions.
The next step is to make sure that these preliminary regulations have been obeyed. It is done by paid officers of the House called Examiners of Petitions for Private Bills,[369:5] and since 1855 the two Houses have appointed the same persons to that post, so that the process is gone through only once.[369:6] The petitioner must prove before the examiner that he has complied with the standing orders; and any person affected has a right to be heard on the question, if he has filed a memorial of his intention to appear. The examiner certifies that the standing orders have been followed, or reports in what respect they have been disregarded.[369:7]
Legislative and Judicial Aspects of the Procedure.
Private bill procedure has both a legislative and a judicial aspect. The final aim being the passage of an act, a private bill goes through all the stages of a public bill, and the records of its progress appear in the journals of the House. But the procedure is also regarded as a controversy between the promoters and opponents of the measure, and this involves an additional process of a judicial character. For that purpose the full records of the case are preserved in the Private Bill Office, where they are open to public inspection. The preliminary steps already described are intended chiefly to prepare the case for the judicial trial, and to give opponents a chance to make ready their defence. They correspond to the pleadings in the clerk's office of a court; and they are conducted by a parliamentary agent who performs the duties of a solicitor in a law suit.[370:1]
Introduction of the Bill.