46. Mr. De la Bèreasked the Prime Minister whether he will issue a circular to Government Departments calling the attention of all drafting officers, and those 1306 concerned in drafting Government Bills, to the necessity for simplicity, in view of some of the complicated Clauses which have appeared in recent Government Bills, which are difficult for hon. Members to understand?
§ The Prime MinisterThose concerned in drafting Government Bills and other legislative documents are well aware of the necessity for expressing them in terms which are as simple and intelligible as the subject-matter permits. The subject-matter, however, of most modern legislation is very complex and frequently highly technical. Anyone who has attempted the task of expressing a complicated and technical matter in terms which can have only one meaning, omitting none of the details which make it complicated, will have realised the difficulty, if not impossibility of attaining both simplicity and accuracy
Mr. De la BèreDoes my right hon. Friend realise the value of the virtue of simplicity; and why do we have so many brackets right and left and muddled words in between? How can hon. Members possibly know what these brackets and muddles mean?
§ The Prime MinisterThe hon. Member must exercise his own intelligence.
§ Mr. Herbert MorrisonIs the Prime Minister's reference to the difficulty of finding an expression having only one meaning a reference to the difficulties of draftsmen, or a reference to the difficulties of the Government?