Lawyers & citizens suffer from the rush to legislate, says Daniel Greenberg
The flood of Acts and statutory instruments shows no sign of abating, despite talk of de-regulation from successive governments. The more legislation Whitehall and Westminster make, the less the chance that sufficient time and other resources will be provided to ensure legislation of reasonable quality. So the problem for citizens and their advisers of handling the flow of new legislation is exacerbated by a significant proportion of it being of poor quality.
Legislating in haste
Recent high profile legislation that appears to have been legislated in haste and repented in even greater haste includes “pasty taxes” and charity tax reliefs; but there are many more lower-profile instances of legislation that have to be amended by a succession of attempts to rectify original defects.
The key to avoiding poor legislation is undoubtedly effective scrutiny in the early stages of the legislative process; going right back to the drafting stage and even earlier. However, given the increasing burden of work on civil servants and ministers, legislative drafts prepared by parliamentary counsel or departmental
