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This fact sheet will give you some basic information about how laws are made the role of MPs. There is a related interview with Andrew Dismore, the Labour MP for Hendon in North London. You can listen to this online or download to an MP3 player.

For a more detailed podcast about the legislative process you can buy for £25, please visit our professional education website thelawreport.co.uk

What does an MPs job description include and what's the difference between their constituency and Parliamentary work?

There isn't really a job description or even a list of qualifications for being an MP. To get elected, you just have to get more votes than the other candidates!

Most MPs spend about half of their time in their constituency and half at Parliament in Westminster. When Parliament isn't sitting, for example, during the summer, MPs will be working in their constituency.

Most of their constituency work is a bit like an advice bureau and they can help local residents with issues like housing, benefit and immigration. They also

work on wider issues, such as improvements in the local NHS or discussing crime with the local police.

Most of their Westminster work involves sitting on committees, taking part in debates and dealing with paperwork.

How do I find out who my MP is and what sort of issues could I go to them about?

House of Commons on 020 7219 3000. There are also a lot of websites with this information, such as the Parliament website, www.parliament.uk, or www.theyworkforyou.com.

You can go to your MP about any issue, whether this is a local problem you need help with or a national campaigning issue you want them to raise in Parliament or with a minister.

How do political parties set their policies and how can I find out about those policies?

Each party will have its own policy-making process, so you should check their websites. Interestingly, you may find that Government policy differs slightly from the policy of the party itself.

What is the role of Parliament as opposed to Government? Is there a difference between the roles of the House of Commons and the House of Lords?

Parliament is responsible for passing laws and agreeing expenditure. The government runs the country.

MPs themselves have no power, they can only pass legislation, amend bills and approve taxes. But they can influence those in power through their contacts and networks.

The House of Commons will debate the general policy in a bill and the House of Lords will look in more detail at the technical issues of how that policy would work in practice.

How are laws made? Who decides what laws are needed?

Bills are usually proposed by the government. Individual MPs and peers can introduce bills, called private members�?? bills, but these don�??t normally make it through the process to becoming law. There are also private bills, which will just affect certain companies or organisations, such as getting permission to build a new dock or harbour.

Most acts of parliament are actually implemented through detailed regulations. An act will give a minister the power to introduce these regulations. They are introduced into Parliament as �??statutory instruments�?� and although they can be debated, these are only short debates and the regulations can't be amended. They must be approved or rejected in full.

Bills normally take between six months and a year to become acts, although some emergency legislation can be dealt with in two days, for example, anti-terrorism legislation.

Bills have to go through a number of stages in both houses of parliament, including a general policy debate and then more detailed scrutiny by a committee. Both houses have to agree a bill before it can become law. However, sometimes the House of Commons can force the House of Lords to agree to a bill using the Parliament Act. The last time this was used was to ban fox hunting.

How do businesses, charities and other organisations interact with Parliament? For example, how do they get involved with policy-making and legislation?

Pressure groups such as charities keep an eye on what is going on in Parliament and lobby MPs they think will be interested in their issue. Many businesses will use the constituency MP where they are based to help them with issues.

The key thing is to target MPs and peers who are likely to be interested in your issue. MPs in particular get a lot of letters every day, so writing to all of them isn�??t going to be worthwhile.

What do the different types of committee do?

There are two main types of committee. Public bill committees, which used to be called standing committees, are temporary and scrutinise the detail in a particular bill.

Select committees have a higher profile. There is a select committee focused on scrutinising the work of each government department. They hold their own enquiries into policy issues and call witnesses to give evidence. They are made up of MPs from all the main parties in parliament.

Some select committees cover both the house of commons and the house of lords and have particular functions. For example, the Joint Committee on Human Rights makes sure that all bills comply with human rights laws and also holds its own enquiries, for example into people trafficking and asylum seekers.

How else do MPs raise issues in Parliament?

There are a number of ways. For half an hour every Wednesday they can question the prime minister, although each MP is only likely to get an opportunity to ask a question once or twice a year.

Other ministers also appear once every two to three weeks to answer questions. And MPs can submit written questions to get more detailed information from government departments.

They can also hold short debates, called adjournment debates, which have no vote. These can be on any subject and the minister responsible has to respond to the issue. There are ballots to decide which MPs can call a debate.

Of course, there is also a lot of lobbying behind the scenes.

What is the difference between the Houses of Parliament and the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly? What sort of issues are devolved?

The Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly are fairly new constitutional bodies. They differ in the issues they cover. For example, the Scottish Parliament deals with health, police and crime, and the Welsh Assembly deals with agriculture. Some issues remain with the UK Parliament, such as the economy, defence and foreign policy.

What sort of things are decided in Europe rather than in the UK Parliament? What impact do European laws have on the UK?

Europe is very important but much less visible. There is a very complicated process for dealing with policy in Europe and it has to be agreed by three different bodies before it becomes law: the European Parliament, the EU Commission and the Council of Ministers, which is made up of every member government.

The main issues decided in Europe are agriculture, business and competition and individual rights �?? for example, the regulations which set out how many hours you are allowed to work.

Where can I get more information?

You can get more information from the Parliament website Parliament website, www.parliament.uk, or www.theyworkforyou.com.

The Scottish Parliament website is www.scottish.parliament.uk/home.htm and the Welsh Assembly website is www.wales.gov.uk.

The website of the European Union is http://europa.eu/index_en.htm.