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Office of the Parliamentary Counsel Drafting Guidance

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Office of the Parliamentary Counsel Drafting Guidance OFFICE OF THE PARLIAMENTARY COUNSEL DRAFTING GUIDANCE __________________________________ June 2020 INTRODUCTION Introduction This guidance has been produced by the Drafting Techniques Group of the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel. The guidance is for members of the office. It is meant to help them in their task of making it as easy as possible for readers to understand the Bills that we produce. It is tailored to our particular needs. So it is not meant to be a comprehensive guide to legislative drafting or to clarity in legal writing. For example, some things which assist clarity such as layout or typography are outside our control and so are not discussed. Nor is this document meant as a guide to statutory interpretation or past drafting practice. Members of the office are asked to have regard to the guidance. But everything in the guidance is subject to the fundamental requirement that drafts must be accurate and effective, and drafters will need to take their particular requirements into account. It follows that there will be departures from what is said here. If you have any suggestions or comments to make on the guidance, the Drafting Techniques Group will be grateful to receive them. The following are new or have been revised in this edition of the guidance: Part 2.2 (numbers and dates); Part 3.8 (conditions); Part 3.10 (cross-references); Part 6.9 (non-textual modifications); Part 7.2 (Senedd Cymru); Part 8.1 (periods of time); Para 9.1 (form of subordinate legislation). —i— —ii— CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Introduction. i PART 1 CLARITY 1.1 TELLING THE STORY Telling the story . 1 Find a logical order and structure . 1 Get to the point . 1 Keep propositions short. 2 The medium is not the message . 2 Tone . 2 1.2 SYNTAX Sentence structure. 3 Positive and negative . 3 Active and passive . 3 Verbs and nouns . 4 1.3 VOCABULARY Which words to choose? . 5 Use no more words than necessary . 5 Use the most familiar words . 5 Use precise and concrete words . 6 PART 2 LANGUAGE AND STYLE 2.1 GENDER NEUTRALITY Office practice . 7 What does gender-neutral drafting require? . 7 Avoiding gender-specific pronouns . 7 Avoiding gender-specific nouns . 10 2.2 NUMBERS AND DATES —i— Numbers. 12 Dates . 12 Percentages . 12 PART 3 STRUCTURE 3.1 HEADINGS Choice of headings . 13 3.2 OVERVIEWS What is an overview?. 14 Advantages . 14 Risks to watch out for. 14 3.3 CLAUSES Clause length. 15 3.4 SUBSECTIONS Second sentences in a subsection . 16 Alternatives to subsections . 16 3.5 FORMULAE, METHOD STATEMENTS, TABLES Formulae . 17 Method statements . 18 Tables . 19 3.6 PARAGRAPHS Use of paragraphs. 20 Two sets of paragraphs . 20 “Sandwiches”. 21 Punctuation . 21 Unnumbered paragraphs . 21 3.7 CONJUNCTIONS BETWEEN PARAGRAPHS “And” and “or” . 22 “Or”. 22 —ii— “And” . 23 Neither “and” nor “or”. 23 3.8 LISTS OF CONDITIONS AND EXCEPTIONS Separate lists of conditions and exceptions . 24 3.9 SCHEDULES When to use Schedules . 26 How to introduce Schedules. 26 3.10 CROSS-REFERENCES No cross-reference needed . 28 Refer to the idea, not the provision . 28 Forward references. 29 Parenthetical descriptions . 29 “Above” and “below” . 29 “of this Act” etc . 29 Arabic and Roman numerals in pre-2001 Acts. 30 PART 4 DEFINITIONS 4.1 DEFINITIONS Different kinds of definition and their function. 31 Choosing labels . 31 Don’t make a definition do too much . 32 Referential definitions . 32 Where to put definitions . 33 Ordering of definitions . 33 PART 5 CITATION 5.1 CITATION OF DOMESTIC LEGISLATION Need for citation . 34 Usual forms of citation. ..
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