Pre-Legislative Scrutiny in the 2006-07 Session: Follow-up
1. On 28 January we published a report on Pre-Legislative Scrutiny in the 2006-07 Session (HL Paper 43), which provided statistics on the volume of draft bills and commentary on the trends that they revealed. We intend to repeat this exercise at the end of every session, in order to maintain pressure on this and any future government to make ever greater use of the pre-legislative scrutiny process.
2. The report made the following key recommendations:
· In order to aid parliamentary scrutiny of the legislative process, and to avoid the confusion that currently prevails, we strongly urge the Government to publish criteria on how the statistics on legislation and draft legislation—including clauses published in draft—should be collated. Moreover, we urge them to draw up comprehensive figures at the end of every session on the basis of the criteria provided.
· We reaffirm our strong support for pre-legislative scrutiny and our desire to see it used more routinely. Whilst welcoming the Government's stated support for pre-legislative scrutiny, we note with concern the decline both in the absolute number and in the proportion of bills published in draft in each session. Building on the positive signals in this year's Queen's Speech, we call on the Government to commit to increase the number of draft bills published per session to at least the 2003-04 level.
· Whilst welcoming the Government's acknowledgement of the importance of publishing draft bills in good time, the Committee continues to be concerned that this is not happening in practice. We call on the Government to ensure that all draft bills are published in good time (allowing twelve weeks for scrutiny at the very minimum, and if possible considerably more), and wherever possible that their release is spread throughout the parliamentary year. Moreover, we urge the Government not to undermine the scrutiny process by launching additional consultations once pre-legislative scrutiny is already underway, or indeed after it has been completed.
3. The Government responded to the report in the form of a letter from Baroness Ashton of Upholland, Leader of the House of Lords, on 20 March. The response is reprinted as an appendix to this report. We look forward to debating our report and the Government's response in the House in due course.
