Modes of Scrutiny

Abstract

Arguably, from the perspective of the ‘collaborative’ model of Parliament’s role in making the law, the most fruitful aspect of modernisation in the legislative field has been the growth of pre-legislative scrutiny, whether undertaken by ad hoc. usually Joint Select Committees or by existing select committees, most commonly departmental select committees in the House of Commons. Pre-legislative scrutiny has been championed by almost every advocate of rationalisation of the legislative process, from both outside and within Westminster. In February 2004 the Deputy Leader of the House of Commons stated that it was the Government’s intention to adopt ‘the presumption that bills will be published in draft for pre-legislative scrutiny unless there are good reasons for not doing so…’.¹ This conclusion was endorsed by the Constitution Committee of the House of Lords in 2004.²