Baroness Browning (Con)

My Lords, I support the noble Lord, Lord Norton of Louth. Since coming to this House 16 years ago, I have been fortunate in the ballot for one-year inquiries—in which we are often encouraged to recommend post-legislative scrutiny—to have successfully brought forward one-year inquiries into two pieces of legislation which I was fortunate enough to take through the House of Commons. The first was the Mental Capacity Act 2005; it was subject to pre-legislative scrutiny, but some years later there was still quite a lot that we had to recommend adjusting in it. Secondly, and most recently, last year there was the review of the Autism Act 2009—a very small Bill that might not have needed post-legislative scrutiny when it was passed. I support the noble Lord. It is quite worrying that there is no structure to the way we identify Bills or any form of legislative commitment to this being carried out. This applies to both Houses, although the expertise in this House lends itself to post-legislative scrutiny and the time involved in doing it is probably more suited to this House than another place. I support him because, sometimes, when we legislate—I think most of us have had this experience—there is a tendency to think that, if we are not quite sure that it says what we mean, the courts will sort it out. That is a very sloppy and dangerous way of legislating, so I support the noble Lord in what he has said.