In the period 1998 to 2010, some 480 Public Acts of Parliament were passed. These have made major changes to the constitution, to the criminal law, to civil liberties and to many other areas of the law. If the 480 Acts are combined with the many thousands of Statutory Instruments through which Acts are implemented and the detail filled in then the nation has been subjected to an absolute tsunami of legislation. Almost no area of either the law or our lives has been left alone. This tsunami is largely home grown. A slow down combined with better thought out and scutinised legislation would be welcome. I am not holding my breath !
I agree and I also think that this is exactly why we need an expert second Chamber in Parliament rather than two elected Chambers.
ReplyDeleteI seem to recall that Tony Blair, got rid of the hereditary Lords and then created a load of Labour peers to give him more control of the Lords.
A system of expert analysis of new Acts by an unelected second Chamber of experts in their fields seems to be the best way of stopping Governments drowning us in legislation again.