Supporting documents

The PCO has produced documents to support the checklist. They are reproduced here to provide information and guidance to departments and agencies that are responsible for drafting subordinate legislation.

• 3.4A Legislation: Using paragraphs to enhance readability and clarity
• 3.4B Using paragraphs to enhance readability and clarity
• 3.5 Ensure that each section has no more than 5 subsections
• 3.8 Use bold, italics, and underlining sparingly and consistently
• 3.10 Link to detailed information
• 4.1 Place key words early in the heading
• 4.2 Headings clearly indicate specific topics or summarise main messages
• 4.3 Headings work well together
• 4.4 Headings appear frequently enough
• 4.5 Headings are reasonably brief
• 4.6 Headings have a clear and consistent hierarchy
• 5.1 Avoid emotive words, jargon, and policy-speak
• 6.2 Make your writing active wherever possible
• 6.3 Sentences are phrased positively
• 6.4 Use narrative style and avoid excessive cross-referencing
• 6.6 Don't split verb forms unnecessarily
• 6.7 Sentences use present tense
• 6.8 Use punctuation appropriately and consistently
• 7.3 Relative clauses
• 8.2 Gender-neutral language
• 8.5 Definitions that are helpful and are not contrived to create artificial concepts
• 8.6 Use modifiers close to words they modify: Mismatched sentence parts
• 8.8 Avoid over-use of noun strings
• 8.10 Avoid archaic language