United Kingdom Law/Reform/Great Reform Bill

This page is an attempt to collate into a workable document a number of proposals for reform of items of legislation in the UK.

Contributing

Please be specific when adding suggestions for reform, The table headings for each section is indicative of what suggestions should include:

• Clause - A numbering which should be incremented if adding a new proposal.
• Legislation - Ideally the short form title and year for specific Primary legislation (typically the Act of Parliament), or title, year and sequence number for secondary legislation (typically Statutory Instruments or Regulations) which contains the laws, regulations or provisions to be repealed. If you are able to assist by clarifying the title in existing proposals, please do so.
• Portion - The portion of the legislation to be reformed. If you are able to assist other contributors by making explicit the specific section a proposal refers to, please do so.
• Wording - The wording of the reform, the text to remove, amend or insert.
• Reasoning - A brief explanation or justification as to why this bill should be concerned with reform of the legislation

in question.

Do not delete without consensus

Please do NOT simply delete proposals from this page. Debate them instead.

The Bill

Preamble

A bill to reform and revise a number of statutory measures in the United Kingdom.

Extent, commencement, transitional provision and short title

(1) This Act extends to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
(2) An amendment or repeal contained in this bill shall have the same extent as the Act or instrument or relevant part of the Act or instrument to which the amendment or repeal relates (ignoring extent by virtue of an Order in Council).
(3) This Act comes into force at the end of the period of six months beginning from the date of Royal Assent. (This provision will give time for public and private sector organisations to adjust to the many reforms in this Act)
(4) A Minister of the Crown, or two or more Ministers of the Crown acting jointly, may by order make transitional, transitory or saving provision in connection with the coming into force of any provision of this Act.
(5) An order under subsection (4) is to be made by statutory instrument.
(6) This Act may be cited as the Reform Act 2012.

Applicability to Devolved assemblies

This bill shall neither add to nor subtract from the devolved powers of the National Assembly for Wales, the Scottish Parliament or the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Constitutional reform

Clause	Legislation	Portion	Wording	Reasoning
1.	Representation of the People Act 2000	Section 6	Add a new Section after Section 6: Residential Qualification for Candidates for Parliamentary Elections: "6A No nomination papers for a candidate for a Parliamentary Election shall be valid unless the candidate has been registered as an elector under S3 of this Act in the same constituency for not less than the previous 24 months before the date on which nominations must be submitted."	This would ensure that there could be no dispute or discussion as to the location of an MP's primary residence and would have significant benefit in providing local ties with the candidate and prevent central party machines from imposing candidates. There would also be a benefit in that candidates would know and understand the area and its needs and also be more likely to have held a proper job.
2.	Criminal Justice Act 1988	Section 139	n section 139, change 'good reason', to 'reasonable excuse', or explicitly allow lock knives	"The lock knife is bought by decorators, electricians, campers and a multitude of other members of the public who do not know that possession in a public place is illegal." Lock knives are tools, safer to use than pen knives, and there is no reason for adults to be criminalised for possessing them. According to the reporting in The Independent, MPs intended the allowed 'folding knives' to include lock knives, it was judicial activism that made them illegal. See

See also

• Law reform

External Links

• UK Legislation
• Law Commission