Helping Parliaments to gain greater independence – CPA launches its Model Law

Today, more than ever, Parliaments are facing many challenges to their effectiveness. The current COVID-19 pandemic is stretching the capacity of Commonwealth Parliaments to remain fully functional, requiring costly resources and specialist services as well as the ability to be rapidly adaptive to new ways of working. To survive such pressures, Parliaments need to have robust leaders, services and finances to respond to such pressures. 

As part of its commitment to the Commonwealth Latimer House Principles, as well as its work in benchmarking Parliaments against international standards, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) has developed a Model Law for Independent Parliaments to help empower Parliaments to take control away from the Executive to ensure it has the administrative, operational and financial resources it needs to function effectively.

The Model Law is designed as a Parliamentary Service Commission Bill which seeks to create a parliamentary corporate body to oversee the institution of Parliament. It has also been structured to accommodate as many versions of the ‘Westminster System’ Parliament as possible. The Model Law can be adapted to suit unicameral or bicameral Parliaments, small or large Legislatures at either a national or subnational level. 

The Acting CPA Secretary-General, Mr Jarvis Matiya said: 

“Since the establishment of the Commonwealth Latimer House Principles, over the last twenty years, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association has been a leader in driving the agenda for strengthening the independence of Parliaments from the Executive, this Model Law is another important step in that process. It will undoubtedly be an invaluable resource for Commonwealth Parliaments that need to create such entities and a clear reminder to other Parliaments to continue to perfect their institutional independence.”

The Model Law has been developed with expert and experienced input from leading Commonwealth Legislative drafters and Parliamentary Clerks. 

The Model Law for Independent Parliaments is available to download below.