Parliamentary Counsel

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Why is it important to have the services provided by OPC?

The work of OPC is important for the following reasons.

• Government policy that depends on the enactment of legislation will not be delivered unless the legislation is properly drafted and effective.
• Unless legislation is clearly expressed and simple to apply, large amounts of both public and private resources can be wasted on undesirable litigation.
• Proposals for legislation are at the heart of Parliament’s business and of the democratic process, with Government Ministers spending much of their time in both Houses defending and explaining the policy and wording of Government Bills.
• The drafting of primary legislation sets both the context (by providing the powers) and the standard (by example) for the drafting of all other legislation, including, in particular, SIs.
• The way legislation is structured and expressed is essential to the preservation of a stable constitutional relationship between Parliament and the courts. It is important that the way legislation is drafted does not debase the coinage of communication between Parliament and the courts, eg through obscurity or the inclusion of extraneous, unnecessary matter.

The need to ensure that legislation is both effective and clear is made particularly important by the fact that, once an Act has received Royal Assent, it is likely to take at least two years to get an amending Act through - eg should it be necessary to correct anything that was not right when the Act was passed. Acts of Parliament are “aimed” at their targets, in the sense that they are launched at Royal Assent in a form that will either succeed or fail to achieve the desired outcome. Once launched they cannot then be “steered” to the target.

The need to preserve a stable constitutional relationship between Parliament and the courts means that Counsel will always have an eye on a Bill’s long-term consequences for the health of the statute book, and the appropriate distinction between the legislative function of Parliament and the interpretative role of the courts. It is a responsibility of Counsel to protect the integrity of the legislative process, so that the judiciary’s settled understanding of the process and this distinction are not disturbed.

The Government’s interests are not served by meeting the short-term interests of one Bill in a way that might undermine the effectiveness of the whole process for the future.