I have just received a notice dated 8 December 2004 from the Regulatory Reform Committee of the House of Commons to the following effect.
The Regulatory Reform Committee has concluded
"That the order-making power under the Regulatory Reform Act 2001 should not be used in respect of the proposals contained in the proposal for the Regulatory Reform (Registration of Births and Deaths) (England & Wales) Order 2004, which was laid before the House on 22nd of July, in the last session of Parliament."
The Committee's full report is to be published as its Second Report of the 2004-05 Session and is expected to be published within eight working days.
The text of the report will be available on the Committee's website from 3.30 pm on the day of publication. (
http://www.parliament.uk/reform).
So it just shows what can be done, sometimes common sense wins. But no doubt the current government will try to get its intensions introduced into law in some other way. We must all remain vigilant and fight any such attempt.
Robin Harritt
http://harritt.net