06-05-2009, 06:06 PM
My Lords and Gentlemen,
The standing orders exist to help reduce chaos and give this body a framework from which to operate. As the nation has changed, so have the standing orders. This means revision, addition and deletion. Which, over time, will render the numbering system currently in use problematic for historic reference, as each change could renumber sections meaning that static references to those sections become invalid so that one not only has to know the reference but the version of the document that is being referenced at the time the reference was made.
This current system does not lend itself to a document that grows with the nation. The current standing orders were hastily put together in an effort to return Parliament to productive work and they accomplished that goal well, but they have shortcomings which we shall now begin to address going forward.
We have already addressed an important one, and it has already caused a problem for no noticed, myself included, that the new section was numbered 37, which would have been the proper number for the reinstated standing orders, but not the revised ones, and it is the revised ones that are in force. I would not have noticed this error at all except I when I, in fact, amended the standing orders document to reflect the passed resolution.
Therefore I propose to amend the Standing Orders to allow each section to begin numbering of its subsections with 1, and that all struck subsections be left in the document with no renumbering but with their text removed and the word [deleted] put in its place, and that all new subsections take the next number in sequence for its specific section.
The standing orders exist to help reduce chaos and give this body a framework from which to operate. As the nation has changed, so have the standing orders. This means revision, addition and deletion. Which, over time, will render the numbering system currently in use problematic for historic reference, as each change could renumber sections meaning that static references to those sections become invalid so that one not only has to know the reference but the version of the document that is being referenced at the time the reference was made.
This current system does not lend itself to a document that grows with the nation. The current standing orders were hastily put together in an effort to return Parliament to productive work and they accomplished that goal well, but they have shortcomings which we shall now begin to address going forward.
We have already addressed an important one, and it has already caused a problem for no noticed, myself included, that the new section was numbered 37, which would have been the proper number for the reinstated standing orders, but not the revised ones, and it is the revised ones that are in force. I would not have noticed this error at all except I when I, in fact, amended the standing orders document to reflect the passed resolution.
Therefore I propose to amend the Standing Orders to allow each section to begin numbering of its subsections with 1, and that all struck subsections be left in the document with no renumbering but with their text removed and the word [deleted] put in its place, and that all new subsections take the next number in sequence for its specific section.