LEGISLATION: The Must do Something Act 2023
A tongue in cheek piece of drafting to get me back into the swing of things.
Introduction
After writing a post on statutory interpretation as it applies to section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998 I have fallen off the writing wagon a bit and am behind on some of my drafting.1 So, I decided to draft up a tongue in cheek solution to a very real problem which I will talk about below. There are a couple of reasons why I’m doing a tongue in cheek piece of legislation. First, it is only a couple of pages long so it was quick and easy to do (and so an easy way to clamber back onto the wagon). Second, this substack would be incredibly boring for all concerned if it only dealt with serious issues. Third, it lets me test how uploading a PDF document will work before I do it with something that I have spent more time on and it turns out this site doesn’t work well for that.
If you fancy having a read of the section 35 post you can find it here:
The idea behind this legislation is very simple: we can all think of examples of where legislation has been introduced just so that someone can say they have done something about something. Although it is understandable why this happens, it eats up significant Parliamentary time and, where legislation is passed, complicates already complicated fields of law. There are also some examples of Private Members Bills which are abject nonsense because what they are actually trying to do is set Government policy.
I should mention because this is only a tongue in cheek piece, I have not undertaken any substantive proof reading or “second” and “third” eye reviews to see if the provisions break on re-reading.
The Act: explanatory notes
This Act provides the perfect vehicle for Ministers who want to be able to announce something which gives the impression of action whilst not increasing the legislative workload of Parliament. It, therefore, frees up Parliamentary time to do what Parliament is meant to be doing: holding Government to account and scrutinising the small amount of legislation which genuinely needs to be put through.
Part 1: powers relating to the doing of something
Section 1
This section gives the Secretary of State the power to announce something is being done in relation to a matter.
Section 2
This section gives the Secretary of State the power to announce the bringing forward of legislation, including the adding of the matter to the list of matters about which something is being done.
Section 3
This section gives the Secretary of State the power to announce something has been done.
Section 4
This section restricts the ability of members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords from bringing forward Private Members Bills. Instead, they must petition the Secretary of State to do something and may only bring forward a Private Members Bill if nothing is done.
Part 2: powers to amend the Act
Section 5
This section gives the Secretary of State the power to add things to the list of matters about which something must be done.
Section 6
This section gives the Secretary of State the power to add things to the list of matters about which something has been done. A matter can be added directly, or added as a consequence of removing it from the list of matters about which something must be done.
Part 3: miscellaneous provisions
Section 7
This section sets out that the powers to make regulations are to be exercised by stautory instrument, subject to the negative procedure.
Section 8
This section sets out the extent of the Act. The Act applies to all of the UK. The Secretary of State cannot exercise a power or make regulations under the Act where a matter is devolved. However, they can exercise a power or make regulations under the Act if the matter is a question of amending the devolution settlement.
Section 9
This section commences the Act, bringing it into force on the day after it is passed.
Section 10
This section provides that the Act may be cited as the “Must do Something Act 2023”.
The Act: the legislative provisions
The Act is attached here:
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No particular reason beyond life getting in the way of doing this around work. Hoping to resume normal musings in due course. At least I am not charging people subscriptions so no one has lost out (and really, not reading my musings is hardly missing out!)