There are three reports to be considered by the Committee today. The first report is of a general nature and deals with the question of implementation of secondary legislation by means of domestic statutory instruments. As most members know, we have been keeping this matter under review for a considerable time. We felt that the time had come to make a general report on the way we see the situation developing and direct attention to certain aspects of the way secondary legislation is implemented by means of domestic legislation or ministerial regulations. I am sure the Committee will agree that this report is timely.
I should like to mention that I received a letter from Senator Robinson indicating her regret that she cannot be present because she is attending a conference in Brussels today. She has made some comments about the question of offences and penalties which I will deal with later. I take it that paragraph 1 is in order?
Paragraph 1 agreed to.
Paragraph 2 deals with the general situation with regard to implementation.
Paragraph 2 agreed to.
Paragraph 3 deals with the aspect of consistency in the implementation of instruments.
The Committee will recall that we were concerned particularly that statutory instruments which implement secondary legislation should, as far as possible, be comprehensive in themselves and that lawyers and others would not have to refer to the original secondary legislation. As far as possible we hope that the domestic regulations will be self-explanatory in that regard. We also mention in the report the question of consistency in phraseology. We have given instances of where there is some inconsistency creeping into the situation. That is of considerable importance from the point of view of practitioners; there should be consistency in phraseology.
The two principal aspects of that matter are the question of whether we use in the domestic instruments wording and phraseology to which we are accustomed in our domestic legislation or, alternatively, whether we try to incorporate as far as possible the wording of the original initiating secondary legislation of the Community. Whatever procedure is to be adopted, it should be consistently adopted.
Paragraph 3 agreed to.
In paragraph 4 we mention the question of citing the necessary authority.