Objective of the report The objective of this report is to identify issues relevant to public access to legislation and to make recommendations about how this could be improved. A key feature of the report is the hypothesis that component parts of the overall issue of access to legislation cannot be viewed in isolation from one another. Access must be considered in the context of the overall legislation production process from the initial instructions, through drafting, on to enactment or making, and then distribution of, and access to, the finished product .
Access is required by an extraordinarily diverse range of users at all stages of the process.
Compiling provides an assurance that any legislation has all amendments incorporated into it as at a certain date. This in turn allows the reconstruction of legislation as at any point of time in the past. Any proposed solution must deal with this fundamental issue. This is in contrast to the more traditional audience, namely the legal profession, the judiciary, and government departments. At present access is represented by a large assortment of printed versions, privately produced CD-ROMs, and access via the internet 3 .