§ 47. Sir Leonard Lyleasked the Prime Minister whether, following his recent exhortation to Government Departments to cut down the length of the orders and regulations issued and to frame them in much simpler language, he has received any report as to the results achieved?
§ Mr. AttleeAs stated by my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary on 26th May, general guidance has been given to Departments on the drafting of this subordinate legislation, and in particular on the importance of securing that so tar as practicable it is intelligible on the face of it without unnecessary reference to other enactments. I believe that these instructions are being generally observed.
§ Sir L. LyleIs my right hon. Friend aware that the Ministry of Home Security recently issued a Fire Order of approximately 70 pages, with a supplementary Memorandum of something like 700 pages, and that it took a certain town clerk on the south coast, with his assistant and the borough auditors, from 2 until 6 o'clock to find out what it all meant; and is it not a fact that 10,000 Orders have been issued to local authorities since the beginning of the war?
§ Mr. AttleeI am not aware, of course, about the matter of the town clerk, but my hon. Friend is trying to get two things done. He wants things made absolutely intelligible to the most uninstructed person, and he asks for the greatest amount of brevity, and these two things are not always compatible.
§ Mr. LevyIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that these Orders are not only issued in official jargon that nobody can 1379 understand but that, when explanations are asked for from the Departments, they reply in the same official jargon which nobody can understand? Why issue Orders at all if people cannot understand the jargon used?
§ Mr. AttleeMy hon. Friend is giving to the lack of understanding too great a universality.
§ Commander Locker-LampsonWhy not use basic American?