Collection

Good law

Information and guidance on the ‘good law’ initiative, which aims to make legislation more accessible and understandable for UK citizens.

This collection was withdrawn on

Initiative now part of department’s list of priorities.

From:
Cabinet Office and Office of the Parliamentary Counsel
Published
30 July 2013
Last updated
21 November 2014 — See all updates

To find out more about the Good Law Initiative or to contribute views on the good law principles and how they might be achieved, email good.law@cabinetoffice.gov.uk. Also visit our good law blog.

Read a blog post from former First Parliamentary Counsel Richard Heaton on the progress of the Good Law initiative 9 months after its launch and follow #goodlaw on Twitter.

Good law speeches

Research and analysis

Better regulation

The Better Regulation programme aims to make it easier for users to understand and follow DEFRA regulations.

DefraLex

DefraLex, hosted on Legislation.gov.uk, is a list of live legislation that includes all the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra’s) regulatory and statutory responsibilities. Defra is the first government department to bring together legislation and related documents in this way to improve transparency. DefraLex will be continuously updated and improved.

Smarter Guidance and Data

The aim of the Smarter Guidance and Data project is to make Defra’s publicly accessible content easier for customers to understand, and to make reporting to regulators simpler and more straightforward.

Keeling Text: Draft Protection of Charities Bill

Many of the provisions in the Draft Protection of Charities Bill amend or add to the Charities Act 2011. To help readers understand the effect of the draft bill the Cabinet Office and the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel have worked with the legislation team at The National Archives to create a Keeling Text version of the Charities Act 2011.

A Keeling Text is a ‘marked up’ version of the current act, showing the effect the draft bill would have on individual provisions.

Read the Keeling Text version of the Charities Act 2011.

Explanatory notes

The Office of the Parliamentary Counsel is working on making explanatory notes for bills easier to read and more accessible to users.

Older good law information

Updates to this page

Published 30 July 2013
Last updated 21 November 2014 + show all updates

  1. Added sections on Defra's Better Regulation project and explanatory notes.

  2. Added article on drafting and presenting legislation that works best for the reader.

  3. Added link to good law blog.

  4. Added link to blog post on Good Law.

  5. Added speech 'Making the law easier for users'.

  6. First published.

Contents

Related content