Improvement of Legislation

Pat James made this Freedom of Information request to Law Commission This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was successful.

Dear Law Commission, please make available the following:

1 The documentation which describes the function, scope of operation, authority and accountability of the operations and actions of the Law Commission.

2. The documentation which describes the process by which a UK citizen may make representation to the Law Commission in order to improve legislation.

Yours faithfully,

Pat James

Communications Law Com, Law Commission

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LAWCOM (FOI), Law Commission

Dear Pat James

Thank you for your request for information received in this office on 13/01/16. We acknowledge receipt. We are handling your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. We will respond to you as promptly as possible and, in any event, will provide the information you seek within 20 working days from receipt of your request, unless it transpires that we do not hold the information or that the information is exempt from disclosure. In the latter event we will advise you why the information sought cannot be disclosed.

If you have any query in the meantime relating to your request, please contact me in my role as the Commission’s FoI co-ordinator.

Yours sincerely

Dan Leighton | FoI Co-ordinator | Law Commission

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LAWCOM (FOI), Law Commission

1 Attachment

Dear Pat James

We are replying to the two parts of your request for information.

1. Information about the Law Commission

We have made information which describes the function, scope of operation, authority and accountability of the operations and actions of the Law Commission available on our website under 'About us' at http://www.lawcom.gov.uk.

The statutory foundation for our operations is contained in the Law Commissions Act 1965, the Law Commission Act 2009 and the Wales Act 2014, which are freely available in the public domain.

2. Making representations to the Law Commission

In response to your request, the Commission's Head of Strategic Engagement writes:

Every three years we run an open consultation on the Law Commission’s future work. We ask for suggestions of potential law reform projects the Law Commission should undertake in its new Programme of work. Our current programme of work ends in 2017, and so we will shortly start consulting on what the next Programme should contain.

We won’t prepare the new documentation for that consultation until later this year, but we attach the questionnaire used in the last consultation.

You will see that we have certain criteria that we have to look at when a project is suggested to us. When considering a potential law reform project, we are guided by our Protocol with Government which is intended to ensure that our recommendations have the best possible chance of becoming law. Some key points that we will look at when considering a project are:
How important is the project: to what extent is the law unsatisfactory (eg, unfair, unduly complex, inaccessible or out of date)?
What are the potential benefits of reform?
Is the independent, non-political Commission the most suitable body to conduct the project?
Are the necessary resources (for example, sufficient relevant experience, project-specific funding) available to enable us to carry out the project effectively?
Would the project require involvement from the Welsh Government and/or the Scottish or Northern Ireland Law Commissions?

Sometimes individuals will contact us during a Programme, and outside of our consultation periods, to suggest a project. In those instances we explain that the way our consultation process works and ask if they would like to be contacted during the next consultation to put their suggestion forward.

3. General

If you are not content with the manner in which we have handled your request for information, you can ask us to conduct an internal review of the request. Please contact me in my role as the Commission's FoI co-ordinator, and I will initiate the internal procedure for you. We ask that a request for a review is made within two months of the date of this email. If you then remain dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have a right of appeal to the Information Commissioner at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF (Tel: 0303-123-1113 / Web: www.ico.gov.uk.

Yours sincerely

Dan Leighton | FoI Co-ordinator | Law Commission

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Dear LAWCOM (FOI), thank you very much for your prompt and full response.

Yours sincerely,

Pat James

LAWCOM (FOI), Law Commission

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This e-mail (and any attachment) is intended only for the attention of
the addressee(s). Its unauthorised use, disclosure, storage or copying
is not permitted. If you are not the intended recipient, please destroy
all
copies and inform the sender by return e-mail.

Internet e-mail is not a secure medium. Any reply to this message
could be intercepted and read by someone else. Please bear that in
mind when deciding whether to send material in response to this message
by e-mail.

This e-mail (whether you are the sender or the recipient) may be
monitored, recorded and retained by the Ministry of Justice. E-mail
monitoring / blocking software may be used, and e-mail content may be
read at any time. You have a responsibility to ensure laws are not
broken when composing or forwarding e-mails and their contents.

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