The Minister of Justice and Attorney General Senator Dorothy Lightbourne on Tuesday announced that a major step was being taken to reduce bottlenecks in the legislative process by providing improved and more timely legislative drafting services.

"To this end, two highly skilled Canadian legislative drafters are expected in the island later this month to assist the Government with drafting several pieces of legislation," the ministry said in a release.

"This will provide support not only to staff members in the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel but also assist in the training of trainers to build capacity in the wider public service."

Drafting expert

Sandra Markman, a Canadian legislative drafting expert, was in Jamaica for two weeks in July. Her assignment was to begin the process of addressing bottlenecks in the legislative process. To this end, she, along with the chief parliamentary counsel and his deputy, presented a pilot course on legislative procedures to members of selected government ministries and departments.

Lightbourne said her ministry was also strengthening the institutional capacity of the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to ensure that timely drafting services are available to ministries and their agencies.

The assistance from the two Canadian drafters and Mark-man forms part of the agreement under the Justice Undertakings for Social Transformation (JUST) Programme.

Lightbourne said the JUST Programme aims to foster a sense of security among Jamaicans, by contributing to the enhancement of the justice system.

The Canadian government, through the Canadian International Development Agency, in April agreed to provide CDN$18 million for this four-year project.