Jellicoe puts Bills on the fast track

LAW Commission chair Mr Justice Brooke has welcomed a new method for fast tracking non-contentious Bills through Parliament.

Called the Jellicoe Procedure, it could reduce the amount of Law Commission-proposed legislation in the pipeline. The first Bill to use it will be the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act

Mechanisms built in to the procedure will ensure that expert bodies such as the Law Society, Law Commission and Bar Council will be consulted by the parliamentary committees considering new law off the floor of the house.

Brooke says: “The Law Commission is delighted by these developments. The procedure provides expert scrutiny of the Law Commission’s proposals in Parliament.” They provide a hope that the backlog of commission Bills awaiting implementation can be reduced.

Labour’s legal spokesman, Paul Boateng MP, and shadow Lord Chancellor Lord Irvine endorse the procedure. Boateng says: “The Jellicoe Procedure must be used more often to make the law simpler, fairer, and cheaper to use. The whips must be happy that a Bill is genuinely non-contentious before it can be used, but I am trying to secure a more formal referral process to decide questions of contentiousness.”