The new law should not be delayed
ONE of the central recommendations of the Mulkerrin report into Education is that the island's 1970 Education Law should be urgently reviewed and updated. That's unsurprising. Only the former Education board and its principal advisers believed it was fit for purpose.
ONE of the central recommendations of the Mulkerrin report into Education is that the island's 1970 Education Law should be urgently reviewed and updated. That's unsurprising. Only the former Education board and its principal advisers believed it was fit for purpose.
Now that particular block has been removed, the implementation of the recommendations and the legal review should move at a gathering pace.
That is until it comes to writing the new legislation which will give effect to the many changes the report envisages.
At that stage, the best of intentions risk falling into the black hole of legal drafting that is the final resting place of so many political initiatives.
The Mulkerrin report itself addresses this: 'Legal experts tell me that whatever replaces the 1970 Law will require allocation and prioritisation of law drafting resources, let alone the inevitable difficulties and delays of the legislative process.'
That's a polite way of being told, 'no chance, buddy'.
A glance at the States Strategic Plan indicates how many times the will of the Assembly is thwarted by the inability of the draftsmen to keep up with the demand for new or amended legislation.
Yes, that is a resource issue but it is also a result of St James's Chambers wanting to retain control over the process in part, as they have stated, because 'we value enormously the collegiate cohesion, and simply the camaraderie, to be derived from the co-location of this important function within the Law Officers' Chambers'.
Well, it might be fun, but using external drafting facilities would greatly speed up the passage of legislation and there would be a much clearer correlation between the cost of passing new laws and the benefit anticipated, particularly if the department concerned had to budget for that expense.
Equally, the reasons stated for St James's Chambers retaining the monopoly on drafting do not seem compelling or particularly aimed at efficiency and expediency.
Establishing a new Education law is a clear priority and it should not have to bide its time until the clubby and companionable draftsmen at St James's can get around to it.
