§ 43. Mr. Fletcher-Cookeasked the Minister for the Civil Service how many draftsmen are now working in the Office of Parliamentary Counsel; how this corn-pares with the position 12 months ago; and what is being done to implement recommendations (1) and (6) of the report of the Renton Committee.
§ Mr. Charles R. MorrisThere are currently 20 draftsmen working full-time in the Parliamentary Counsel Office compared with 20 full-time and one part-time on 1st May 1975. However, in this 12-month period the overall number of full-time parliamentary draftsmen has increased by two; the number working at the Law Commission had dropped to three and is now restored to five.
Consideration has been given to a number of possibilities for training draftsmen, including setting up a course in legislative drafting. But as the Renton Committee recognised, it would not be easy to find a trained draftsman to run such a course. In addition, much of the job can be learnt only by long experience.
It is planned to recruit a small number of extra staff in the near future.