Tuesday, February 03, 2009
The art of drafting a Legislative Competence Order
An extract from the meeting scrutinising the Legislative Competence Order on Carers on 24 January:
Mr Rowlands (Assembly Government Lawyer): We draft each proposed LCO based on what we want to achieve in it. They are generally broadly drafted to ensure that they achieve what we want them to, but we do not go so far as to draft them so broadly that they cover every imaginable or unimaginable eventuality for the next 20 years.
Peter Black: Why not? [Laughter.]
Mr Rowlands: One reason is because you would have problems with Westminster scrutiny; another is drafting certainty, given that the intention of the draftsperson at the time has to be certain. We cannot just go off on a limb without a reason.
A remarkable admission that the attitude of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee is a deciding factor in determining the scope of bids for additional Assembly powers.
Mr Rowlands (Assembly Government Lawyer): We draft each proposed LCO based on what we want to achieve in it. They are generally broadly drafted to ensure that they achieve what we want them to, but we do not go so far as to draft them so broadly that they cover every imaginable or unimaginable eventuality for the next 20 years.
Peter Black: Why not? [Laughter.]
Mr Rowlands: One reason is because you would have problems with Westminster scrutiny; another is drafting certainty, given that the intention of the draftsperson at the time has to be certain. We cannot just go off on a limb without a reason.
A remarkable admission that the attitude of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee is a deciding factor in determining the scope of bids for additional Assembly powers.
Comments:
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Sounds like a labour run council, with the officers calling all the tunes, to use a canine analogy, the tail wagging the dog.
# posted by 
: 7:54 PM
: 7:54 PM
I've seen enough problems with broadly drawn legislation from Westminster (never mind Brussels) since 1997 to favour keeping it as tight as possible.
The last thing I want is to give them enough rope to hang us with.
Draughting legislation briadly needs a *very* good reason.
The last thing I want is to give them enough rope to hang us with.
Draughting legislation briadly needs a *very* good reason.
This is not that sort of legislattion Matt, it is the drawing down of powers so that the Assembly can legislate itself. In that respect the wider it is drawn the more scope the Assembly has when it draws up its own laws.
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