Parliament of Sri Lanka - Parliament of Sri Lanka

The Bills Office of Parliament

The Bills Office of the Parliament of Sri Lanka functions under an Assistant Director (Administration) as the Head of the Branch.

The Bills Office has to ensure the correctness in all three languages of all the Bills, Ministers' Reports and Committee Reports to be presented to Parliament and also the Final Assent Copies of the Speaker and Final Acts before they are printed.

The main function of the Bills Office is the processing of Bills presented to Parliament and guiding same through all stages of the Bill until the certification of the Speaker, after which it becomes a law.

A Bill would go through the following stages in the process of its enactment.

1.	Publication of Bills in Gazettes
2.	Presentation of Bills (i) Government Bills (ii) Private Members' Bills
3.	First Reading
4.	Second Reading
5.	Reference to Ministries
6.	Committee Stages (i) Committee of the Whole Parliament (ii) Standing Committee (iii) Select Committee
7.	Third Reading
8.	Speaker's Certificate
9.	Final Act