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Good law?

Nicholas Bevan calls out the DfT over arrangements for the victims of uninsured & untraced drivers

Last April the government launched an important campaign under the banner of “Good Law”. It is intended to increase the quality of lawmaking and to drive these improved standards across all the different organs of government. The initiative is the brainchild of Mr Heaton, who occupies the dual role of First Parliamentary Counsel and Permanent Secretary for the Cabinet Office. There are many of us who wish him luck; he’ll need it.Heaton’s recipe for “Good Law” is premised on the following key ingredients in the mission statement below:

“The Office of the Parliamentary Counsel (OPC) would like the user to experience good law—law that is: necessary, clear, coherent, effective, accessible.”

The law buffs among us will immediately recognise that these principles share a more than passing acquaintance with Lord Bingham’s seminal speech in 2006 on the rule of law, and rightly so. It is worth quoting directly from Lord Bingham on the need for legal certainty:

“First,

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NEWS

The Court of Appeal has slammed the brakes on claimants trying to swap defendants after limitation has expired. In Adcamp LLP v Office Properties and BDB Pitmans v Lee [2026] EWCA Civ 50, it overturned High Court rulings that had allowed substitutions under s 35(6)(b) of the Limitation Act 1980, reports Sarah Crowther of DAC Beachcroft in this week's NLJ

Cheating in driving tests is surging—and courts are responding firmly. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Parpworth of De Montfort Law School charts a rise in impersonation and tech-assisted fraud, with 2,844 attempts recorded in a year
As AI-generated ‘deepfake’ images proliferate, the law may already have the tools to respond. In NLJ this week, Jon Belcher of Excello Law argues that such images amount to personal data processing under UK GDPR
In a striking financial remedies ruling, the High Court cut a wife’s award by 40% for coercive and controlling behaviour. Writing in NLJ this week, Chris Bryden and Nicole Wallace of 4 King’s Bench Walk analyse LP v MP [2025] EWFC 473
A €60.9m award to Kylian Mbappé has refocused attention on football’s controversial ‘ethics bonus’ clauses. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Estelle Ivanova of Valloni Attorneys at Law examines how such provisions sit within French labour law
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