BETTER LAWS NOT QUICKER LAWS - TYLER

Lord (Paul) Tyler today (Tuesday) warmly welcomed positive suggestions from the Liberal Democrats to improve the way new laws are examined by both Houses of Parliament.

Lord Tyler is a member of the Joint Committee on Conventions, to which the Liberal Democrats submitted written and oral evidence today.

“The Government seems to be obsessed with speeding up the process, simply to make life easier for themselves.  The evidence we are receiving on the Joint Committee makes it clear that nobody else shares this objective.  Far from wishing to ‘codify’ some of the out-of-date conventions, our witnesses seem to be sensibly concerned to modernise them and improve the overall effectiveness of Parliament.  That means better laws rather than quicker laws.”

“Jack Straw and his merry men obviously thought they could browbeat everybody into turning the Lords into a talking shop.  Instead, they seem to have taken a tin opener to a can of worms.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

1. The full Liberal Democrat Evidence is available online at:

http://www.libdems.org.uk/media/documents/parliament/Conventions_memo_jun06.doc

2. Transcripts of the Committee’s proceedings are available online at:

http://pubs1.tso.parliament.uk/pa/jt/jtconv.htm