Standing up for Scrutiny: How and Why Parliament Should Make Better Law

摘要

The quality of law is ultimately shaped by the scrutiny it receives in Parliament. But the tidal wave of often hastily prepared, deficient legislation that the UK Parliament has been asked to scrutinise over the last decade and more has severely stretched the capacity of parliamentarians to perform their constitutional function effectively. There is little incentive for the executive to address this situation and restrain its almost untrammelled power of legislative initiative, and therefore Parliament needs to assert its right to receive adequately drafted legislation and the time to scrutinise it thoroughly. To this end, Parliament should establish a Legislative Standards Committee to act as a gatekeeper against insufficiently prepared legislation, and a range of other reforms to improve the scrutiny of bills once they pass that test.