Vote Parliamentary Counsel - Justice - Estimates 2014/2015

Summary of the Vote#

Overview#

The Attorney-General is responsible for appropriations in Vote Parliamentary Counsel for the 2014/15 financial year covering the following:

• a total of nearly $11 million for the provision of law drafting services. This includes legislative drafting assistance to Pacific Island nations, undertaking 3-yearly programmes of statute law revision, and administering legislation that the PCO is responsible for
• a total of just under $10 million for the provision of access to legislation in both paper and electronic form, and
• a total of almost $3 million on the purchase or development of assets by and for the use of the Parliamentary Counsel Office, as authorised by section 24 (1) of the Public Finance Act 1989.

Details of these appropriations are set out in Parts 2-4.

Estimates of Appropriations#

Details of Appropriations and Capital Injections#

Annual and Permanent Appropriations

Supporting Information#

Part 1 - Vote as a Whole#

This part provides trend information for the vote.

1.2 - Trends in the Vote#

Summary of Financial Activity#

Note - where restructuring of the vote has occurred then, to the extent practicable, prior years information has been restated as if the restructuring had occurred before the beginning of the period covered.

Adjustments to the Summary of Financial Activity table due to Vote Restructuring#

As a consequence of the 2013 amendment to the Public Finance Act, Multi Class Output Expense Appropriations were converted to Multi-Category Appropriations.

1.3 - Analysis of Significant Trends#

On 1 July 2013, a multi-class output expense appropriation (MCOA) called Drafting and Access to Legislation was established but this did not change the PCO's total appropriation. Due to changes in the Public Finance Act 1989 from 1 July 2014, the PCO's current MCOA will transition to a multi-category appropriation (MCA). Again, this change will not affect the PCO's total appropriation.

1.4 - Reconciliation of Changes in Appropriation Structure#

Explanations of the reasons for changing the appropriation structure are noted in the details of each appropriation in Parts 2-4.

Part 2 - Details of Departmental Appropriations#

2.3 - Departmental Capital Expenditure and Capital Injections#

Parliamentary Counsel Office - Capital Expenditure PLA (M5)

Scope of Appropriation

Capital Expenditure

What is Intended to be Achieved with this Appropriation

This appropriation is intended to achieve the renewal and replacement of life-expired assets in support of the delivery of the Parliamentary Counsel Office's services.

How Performance will be Assessed and End of Year Reporting Requirements

Almost 90% of the PCO's capital expenditure relates to the New Zealand Legislation system. Over the next 5 years, the PCO intends to complete a number of milestones relating to deepening the content on the NZ Legislation website by adding to the collection and broadening the coverage of the website to provide access to other legislation and information about that legislation. Performance will be assessed by whether those milestones have been achieved and expenditure is in accordance with the PCO's strategic and business plans.

End of Year Performance Reporting

Performance information for this appropriation will be reported by the Parliamentary Counsel Office in its Annual Report to be presented in the House.

Capital Injections and Movements in Departmental Net Assets

Parliamentary Counsel Office

Part 4 - Details of Multi-Category Expenses and Capital Expenditure#

Multi-Category Expenses and Capital Expenditure#

Drafting and Access to Legislation (M5)

Overarching Purpose Statement

Scope of Appropriation

Expenses, Revenue and Capital Expenditure

Comparators for Restructured Appropriation

The MCOA was directly converted into an MCA in 2014/15 as a technical adjustment.

What is Intended to be Achieved with this Appropriation

This appropriation is intended to achieve the provision of impartial high quality legislative drafting services and advice and to enable easy and free access to the laws of New Zealand.

How Performance will be Assessed for this Appropriation

Performance for the MCA as a whole will be assessed by whether the individual performance measures in both categories have been achieved.

What is Intended to be Achieved with each Category and How Performance will be Assessed

Note 1 - A 100% budget standard is not appropriate as system outages are required for planned upgrades.

Note 2 - The measure of quantity is demand driven and will vary from year to year.

Note 3 - The measure of timeliness is that the following will be available on the New Zealand Legislation (NZL) website within one working day:

• all new Government Bills introduced into the House
• after the printed version is made available to the House, all subsequent versions of Bills
• after they have been circulated to Members of Parliament, all SOPs
• after they are notified in the New Zealand Gazette, all legislative instruments.

within five working days:

• of introduction or release, all Government Bills and SOPs are published and provided for sale at designated bookshops and to subscribers
• of assent, all Acts are available on the NZL website
• of being made, all legislative instruments are published and provided for sale at designated bookshops and to subscribers.

within ten working days:

• of assent, all Acts are published and provided for sale at designated bookshops and to subscribers.

Note 4 - The quality standard is that:

• the electronic database of Acts (both as enacted and with their amendments incorporated), legislative instruments (both as made and with their amendments incorporated), Bills, and SOPs is up to date
• Bills, SOPs, Acts of Parliament, and legislative instruments are published to the standard required by parliament.

Note 5 - The quality standard is that:

• the legislation produced is drafted as clearly and simply as possible
• the legislation produced is legally effective
• the instructing department or agency is satisfied with the final product
• advice on legislative drafting matters is provided in a professional, impartial, and responsive manner.

The timeliness standard is that:

• drafts of legislation are produced within agreed deadlines.

Note 6 - The quality standard is that:

• Bills and legislative instruments are legally effective, clear, consistent with other legislation, the general law, and international law
• Bills and legislative instruments are consistent with the policy they implement, legal principle, the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, and the Human Rights Act 1993
• advice given on matters relating to the provision of legislative drafting services, including advice on legislative drafting, parliamentary procedure, executive government process, and the law, is sound, practical, and clear.

The timeliness standard is:

• Bills, legislative instruments, and SOPs are drafted in accordance with time frames set by, or agreed with, the Government, select committees, instructing departments and agencies.

Note 7 - The quality standard is that:

• advice given on matters relating to the provision of legislative drafting services, including explaining the changes made by the revision tracked version of a Bill, is objective, accurate, and sufficient.

The timeliness standard is that:

• revision tracked documents are provided for the Select Committee in accordance with deadlines set by or negotiated with the committee.

Note 8 - The quality standard is that:

• advice given on matters relating to the provision of legislative drafting services is objective, accurate, and sufficient.

The timeliness standard is that:

• legislation is provided to Pacific Island instructors in accordance with agreed deadlines.

Note 9 - The PCO will review, on an ongoing basis, the baseline established in the 2011/12 year which is based on the following set of guidelines for PCO's peer reviewers.

The quality standards for peer reviewing are that:

• Bills drafted by the PCO are reviewed for their legal effectiveness, workability, compliance, structure, and readability. These Bills are reviewed once prior to introduction and a second review takes place before committee stages.
• Legislative instruments drafted by the PCO are reviewed once before being submitted to Cabinet for their legal effectiveness, workability, compliance, structure, and readability.

Note 10 - The performance measures and standards for peer reviewing excludes Bills drafted by the Pacific Island desk and local, private, and Members' Bills.

There are also some instances when peer review of legislative instruments is not required. These include:

(a) single date commencement orders (if not revoking a commencement order and replacing it with a new commencement order)

(b) Levies and fees if the change relates to figures only

(c) Ministerial notices that are pro forma (no choice regarding wording)

(d) Takeovers exemption notices unless a class notice.

Note 11 - The quality standards for proofreading legislation are that:

• Bills drafted by the PCO are read in full at least twice by Editorial Services to detect errors before introduction.
• Before Legislative instruments drafted by the PCO are made, they are read in full at least once by Editorial Services to detect errors.

Note 12 - The performance measures and standards for proofreading excludes Bills drafted by the Pacific Island desk.

Note 13 - The quality standards for the 3-yearly revision programme is that:

• all certified revision Bills and their accompanying certificates have been provided to the Attorney-General in accordance with S.33 of the Legislation Act 2012.

The timeliness standard is that:

• legislation, as outlined in the agreed 3-yearly revision programme, is drafted within agreed time frames.

Note 14 - The quality standards for the 3-yearly revision programme are that:

• the legislation produced is drafted as clearly and simply as possible
• the legislation produced is legally effective.

The timeliness standard is that:

• legislation, as outlined in the agreed 3-yearly revision programme, is drafted within agreed time frames.

End of Year Performance Reporting

Performance information for this appropriation will be reported by Parliamentary Counsel Office in its Annual Report to be presented in the House.

Reasons for Change in Appropriation

The increase in this multi-category appropriation for 2014/15 is due to a return of savings of $600,000 from the Access to Legislation category and the return of savings of $600,000 from the Law Drafting Services category in the 2013/14 year.

Current and Past Policy Initiatives