98
It seems unlikely that legislation will flow from the project underway in England.
But the project is worth following closely because the legislative problems in the
United Kingdom are very similar to those in New Zealand.
99
Obvious questions that need to be examined in post-legislative scrutiny exercises
would be the following:
·
What interpretative difficulties have been encountered in the legislation?;
·
Has the legislation had unintended legal consequences?;
·
Have the policy objectives been achieved?;
·
What have been the economic costs imposed by the legislation, and what
does it cost to administer?;
·
Has it been cumbersome and bureaucratic?
100 Such scrutiny could be as narrow or as broad as was desired. How much
legislation should be scrutinised, and when, where and how such scrutinising
should occur are obviously issues of importance. The Consultation Paper gives
no definitive answers to those questions.
101 The English Discussion Paper makes it clear that the case for post-legislative
scrutiny of delegated legislation is also strong. The problem here is that in the
view of the Law Commission, the sheer volume of secondary legislation means
that, practically speaking, post-legislative scrutiny would be an extremely
difficult task.
102 Indeed, proper assembly of data at the pre-legislative scrutiny stage and making
plans to monitor legislation after it goes into effect should be carried out much
more than it is. There is a direct and dynamic relationship between pre-legislative
and post-legislative scrutiny. Consideration needs to be given in New Zealand to
imposing some requirements in both phases to avoid the common syndrome we
have a problem, lets pass a law.
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