Pre-legislative scrutiny and the Legislation Advisory Committee 86 Statutes are often not required and should be avoided if possible.  Legislation is not the answer to every problem and New Zealanders need a lot of education to that  effect.    We  tend  to  pass  laws  for  which  there  is  no  legal  reason.³⁹    A fundamental  threshold  question  needs  to  be  asked  much  more  often  and  much more  rigorously  than  it  is  –  is  legislation  required  at  all?    We  have  to  avoid cluttering up an over-full statute book with unnecessary laws. 87 Last year I was appointed Chair of the Legislation Advisory Committee.  This is the successor to the old Public and Administrative Law Reform Committee.  It has been kept in use to allow a group of academic lawyers, along with a retired judge and  a  serving  judge,  two  economists,  private  practitioners  and  Government lawyers  to  provide  advice  continually  to  the  Government  on  good  legislative practice.    Its  most  important  work  product  has  been  the  Legislation  Advisory Committee  Guidelines,  which  have  been  adopted  by  Cabinet  as  appropriate benchmarks for legislation to meet.⁴⁰    88 Seminars  conducted  by  the  Committee  on  the  guidelines  last  year  attracted  400 public servants.  The Guidelines themselves are under review.  It has occurred to me in relation to this work that an early warning system would be helpful.  Where agencies  are  planning  legislation,  the  architecture  of  it  needs  to  be  settled  early and in accordance with sound legal and constitutional principles.    89 At present, the Law Commission analyses all Bills introduced for the Legislation Advisory Committee and reports to the Committee on them.  The Committee then takes the issues up with Parliamentary Counsel, the appropriate Minister, officials or itself makes submissions to a Select Committee.  It all depends on what seems to be the most appropriate in the circumstances.  Agencies and departments are also  coming  to  consult  with  the  LAC  in  advance  of  framing  their  legislative proposals, and there is considerable benefit in that practice.                                                     39   For instance, the Music Teachers Act 1981. 40   Legislation Advisory Committee  Legislation Advisory Committee:  Guidelines on Process and    Content    of    Legislation    (Legislation    Advisory    Committee,    Wellington,    2001) <http://www.justice.govt.nz/lac/index.html> (last accessed 30 March 2006). 27