8 Annual Report The Commission Who we are The Law Commission is an independent Crown entity governed by the Law Commission Act 1985 (LCA) and the Crown Entities Act 2004 (CEA). Our purpose is to promote the systematic review, reform and development of the law of New Zealand. The Board, for the purposes of the Crown Entities Act, are the members of the Commission. At year end there were five Commissioners and 29 staff in the Commission. This includes the General Manager, 20 legal and policy advisers (including two secondments) and eight support staff. The full staff list as at year end is attached as Appendix A. The Commission also makes use of consultants with expertise in specialist areas. We have our own law library and operate from offices that we sub lease within a modern office building in the Wellington CBD. What we do We are a law reform agency. The Commission has an established policy and legal research culture and our project work programme falls into two categories: those referred by government to the Commission under section 7 of the LCA; and those that, upon its own motion, the Commission decides to embark upon. In recent years we have not carried out any self-referred projects as the weight of government references has been very heavy. In addition to our core work programme, a principal function of the Commission under our Act is to advise the Minister of Justice and the Minister Responsible for the Law Commission on ways in which the law of New Zealand can be made as understandable and accessible as is practicable. The main way in which the Commission undertakes this function is through its servicing of two important executive government committees that are aimed at improving the quality of legislation. These are the Legislation Advisory Committee (LAC), which has existed since 1986, and the Legislation Design Committee (LDC), which was created in 2006.