Memorandum To The Justice Select Committee

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 received Royal Assent on 30 November 2000 and came into full effect on 1 January 2005. The Act gave the public, for the first time, a statutory right (subject to appropriate limitations) to i) find out if a public authority held specified information and, ii) if so, to be provided with access to it. This Memorandum revisits the original objectives and evaluates whether those have been met. It is felt that the FIOA has become embedded in the culture of public authorities and its effects on openness and transparency are clear. The successes do not come without cost, however, primarily in the form of concern at the time taken to process and respond to FOI requests, to conduct public interest tests and consider exemptions. The extent though to which original decisions are neither complained against, or are upheld on complaint, indicate that the FOIA is working largely as it should

Dated January 2012. This memorandum relates to the Compensation Act 2006 (PGA 2006 Ch. 29, ISBN 9780105429067)

This reference book is primarily a procedural work which examines the many forms, customs, and practices which have been developed and established for the House of Commons since Confederation in 1867. It provides a distinctive Canadian perspective in describing procedure in the House up to the end of the first session of the 36th Parliament in Sept. 1999. The material is presented with full commentary on the historical circumstances which have shaped the current approach to parliamentary business. Key Speaker's rulings and statements are also documented and the considerable body of practice, interpretation, and precedents unique to the Canadian House of Commons is amply illustrated. Chapters of the book cover the following: parliamentary institutions; parliaments and ministries; privileges and immunities; the House and its Members; parliamentary procedure; the physical & administrative setting; the Speaker & other presiding officers; the parliamentary cycle; sittings of the House; the daily program; oral & written questions; the process of debate; rules of order & decorum; the curtailment of debate; special debates; the legislative process; delegated legislation; financial procedures; committees of the whole House; committees; private Members' business; public petitions; private bills practice; and the parliamentary record. Includes index.

The Government presented its Post-legislative Scrutiny of the Serious Crime Act 2007 Memorandum to the Home Affairs Committee and Justice Committee in November 2012. The parts of the Memorandum falling within the Justice Committee's remit were a) Serious Crime Prevention Orders and b) Part 2, in particular, offences of encouraging or assisting crime in terms of prosecution and interpretation of the sections by courts and the CPS. There is concern about the trenchant criticism that Part 2 of the Serious Crime Act 2007 received. In addition, Part 2 was the subject of appeals to the Court of Appeal. The report concurs with the academics who wrote that the sections are complex and difficult to understand for lawyers, let alone for defendants, jurors and other lay-people working in the criminal justice system. It raises some key concerns and questions about the purpose of post-legislative scrutiny. It is considered that where the substance of an Act or part of an Act is to create or revise criminal offences it is appropriate for questions of a purely legal or technical nature to be considered. The latest judgment in the case of Sadique may allow the legislation to settle into accepted use and interpretation. However, the Ministry should conduct a further and full post-legislative assessment of Part 2 in 2016. If, in the meantime, the number of appeals on Part 2 increases, the Ministry should consider bringing forward legislative proposals for revising, or even replacing, Part 2 to meet the purpose of the legislation in a less tortuous fashion

The report The Inquiries Act 2005: Post-legislative Scrutiny (HL143) finds that the government is not using the legislation passed in the Inquiries Act 2005 enough, and is setting up inquiries with inadequate powers. The Committee urges the government to set up a Central Inquiries Unit to make the most of any lessons learned from past inquiries, and make the best use of collective knowledge and proficiency in this field. The unit would be a new center of expertise, which would enable future inquiries to hit the ground running while also being more efficient, more streamlined and less costly to the public. Overall the Inquiries Act 2005 is robust and effective, but the government is not using it in the way it should be. By setting up public inquiries outside of the Act, the government is creating inquiries which have inadequate powers to do their job. On 6 March 2014, the Home Secretary announced a judge-led inquiry into undercover policing, but did not say

In this report the Liaison Committee conducts a brief review of House of Lords policy committees, in advance of the appointment of those committees in the new Parliament

Parliament and the legislative Process : 14th report of session 2003-04, Vol. 2: Evidence

This is the Committee's response to the Government's response (HC 41-!, session 2008-09, ISBN 9780215525536) to the Parliamentary Ombudsman's 4th report of session 2007-08 (HC 815, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780102957303).