Bills and Acts of Parliament: Format

HL Deb 19 December 2002 vol 642 cc133-4WA

Lord Monson

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether the recently introduced practice of omitting the full stop after clause and section numbers in Bills and Acts of Parliament respectively makes the documents in question easier to understand; and, if not, why the change was introduced. [HL538]

Lord Williams of Mostyn

The format of Bills and Acts of Parliament was changed during Session 2000–01, following the report of a working group on the format of the statute law. The group's report was endorsed by the Procedure Committee in its second report of Session 1998–99, which included samples of text in the new format. The purpose of the changes recommended by the group, taken as a whole, was to make the statute law easier to read and to understand, not only in paper form but also using modern technology, including the Internet, on which all Bills and Acts are now published.