Policy Making and Legislation

Abstract

Attempts have been made to identify areas of policy making that are distinct from one another not only by academics but by practising politicians such as Lord Haldane and his committee¹ and Edward Heath and his cabinet.² They have not succeeded, and the basic changes in the machinery of government that have developed and must develop further as a result of the entry of the United Kingdom into the European Communities—not to mention the lingering possibility of devolution to Scotland—must render any scheme likely to remain valid only temporarily. Nevertheless, it is not possible to assimilate the substantive content of 185 ordinary government bills without grouping them into some sort of rational order. Nor is it legitimate to analyse the procedures of the legislative process without regard to the substantive content of the legislation. It is with these limited and essentially utilitarian objectives that the legislation of the 1970–74 parliament has been grouped into nine major areas and 45 sub-areas, including two sub-areas where no bills were introduced in this parliament but which were areas in which bills would be likely to be found in other parliaments. The areas and sub-areas are as follows: