Government unveils 'good law' plan in bid to tackle complexity in legislation

The Government has unveiled plans to launch a ‘good law’ initiative in a bid to make legislation more accessible.

The launch followed publication of a report by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel on the causes of complexity in legislation.

The report said: “In the course of this review it appeared evident that while users would like legislation that is simple, accessible, easy to comply with and not unnecessarily burdensome, at present those are not the features of modern legislation.

“Some of the reasons for legislation falling short of what users hope for are inescapable. But there are other factors which ought to be within reach of government, Parliament, publishers and others – either acting in their own sphere of influence or in partnership.”

The OPC suggested that for that to happen, there needed to be a shared ownership of, and pride in, the country’s legislation. “And pieces of legislation need to be regarded not just as documents in their own right, but as parts of a larger mosaic of legislation. It is the aggregate to which the user will have access to.”

The report acknowledged that the OPC had historically tended to be more aware of the needs of institutional users of legislation, including public bodies such as regulators, devolved administrations, and local authorities.

“We need to understand better the expectations of new users of legislation,” it said. “This group includes a variety of people who access legislation for professional or personal reasons and who may not be familiar with the architecture of the statute book, may not know how to find and access legislation and guidance about legislative changes.”

The report said there needed to be a stronger incentive on all involved in the process to avoid generating excessively complex law, or to act positively to promote accessibility, ease of navigation, and simplification.

It added that the responsibility for improving outcomes sat in many places.

“Findings solutions requires a number of partners – in Government, in Parliament and beyond – to challenge their current approach to making and promoting legislation,” the report said.

“A more collaborative approach, combined with simplified internal procedures, could facilitate the work of all those involved in the preparation of legislation, ultimately mitigating the manifestations (and causes) of complex laws.”

The OPC suggested that the principles of collaboration and openness that formed part of civil service reform could be applied to the preparation of legislation, as could the Government’s emphasis on simplification and transparency.

“Laws are not abstract sets of instructions and during their preparation the practicalities of how they will be promulgated, used and implemented should be carefully considered,” it argued.

The report said that reaching a consensus around the principles of good law, and a sense of shared responsibility to promote it, could be more effective in improving the quality of statute law than stricter procedures and more prescriptive templates.

On the ‘good law’ initiative, the OPC said: “We are asking our partners and colleagues to agree that statutory law should be necessary, effective, clear, accessible and coherent.

“As drafters, we play an important part in reaching that goal. We are always looking for better ways to write laws, and we would like to see more feedback from readers and users on what we do. But there are many other players, both in the preparation of legislation and involved more ‘upstream’ in the policy process.”

The OPC said it aimed to:

• build a shared understanding of the importance of good law;
• ensure that legislation is as accessible as possible, and consider what more can be done to improve readability;
• reduce the causes and perception of unnecessary complexity;
• talk to the judges who authoritatively interpret the law and to the universities which teach it, to avoid confusion and facilitate interpretation.

It added: “We would like good law to be an integral part of the new approach to government where openness, collaboration and efficiency define the way Whitehall works with its partners and serves citizens.”

Announcing the initiative, the Cabinet Office said: “People find legislation difficult. The volume of statutes and regulations, their piecemeal structure, and their level of detail and frequent amendments, make legislation hard to understand and difficult to comply with.

“The government would like the user to experience good law: law that is necessary, clear, coherent, effective and accessible.”

 A copy of the report can be viewed here.