Legislative Drafting Manual

2.5.3. Consultation with stakeholders  
Benefits of consultation include the following:

It gives a better understanding of the nature of the problem or activities to be 
regulated

It helps to gain early public reaction/input

It helps to have more informed choices as to the appropriate mechanisms to 
address a problem or to give effect to the policy at hand; and particularly, it 
helps to determine whether legislation is the appropriate option.

It helps to determine whether the better option is primary legislation or 
secondary legislation

It makes the law making process more transparent to affected groups.
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
It facilitates the collection of some categories of data needed;

It may result in legal solutions more likely to encourage compliance;

It may save the time during parliamentary process;
There are different ways of consultations, including: governmental consultations, 
non-governmental consultations, expert consultations, and consultations with the 
affected public.
Governmental consultations

Make consultations with public authorities so that the law would take into 
account the wider Government interest.

You may need to consult different ministries and governmental organs as 
opposed to one. Few legislative projects are of concern to one governmental 
body only.

In the consultations collect reactions from the involved governmental bodies to 
initial position already taken by the in the draft.
Mode of Consultation

The consultation should be made by sending the draft to the concerned 
ministries with request of comment.

Do not send such a request to all governmental bodies. This may lead to 
fruitless work by organs with no connection with the bill, and may cause 
problems of co-ordination and delay when so many potential respondents are 
involved.

But where the substantial involvement of many governmental bodies is 
foreseen, it is advisable to organize a joint consultation in a meeting, so that all 
major interests are party to the policy development from the start.