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The Constitution (Amendment) Bill
No. XVI of 2026
What the Order Paper says
Listed as part of the group of nine Bills presented for First Reading. The Order Paper does not describe its constitutional amendments.
The Bill appears in the 20 October Order Paper with an asterisk, indicating certification as urgent under Standing Order 65.
Official legislation and source documents
Independent commentary and proposed amendments
Parliamentary status: For review - parliamentary passage not confirmed
This is an independently authored commentary. It does not reproduce an official parliamentary decision and is not a Government amendment or an official consultation.
Observations and assessment
Preliminary independent scrutiny note, 22 October 2026. This Bill belongs to the wider nine-Bill National Crime Agency legislative package. A constitutional amendment must be examined in its exact wording and in its interaction with the other eight Bills. This preliminary note identifies issues for scrutiny; it is not a finding that any particular safeguard is absent from the official Bill.
The central constitutional test is whether the new institutional architecture strengthens crime investigation while respecting the separation of powers, judicial independence, the constitutional role of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the responsibilities of the Commissioner of Police and enforceable fundamental rights. A constitutional change should be precisely delimited and should not be used to make ordinary investigative powers immune from judicial review.
Particular attention should be given to appointment and removal safeguards, any transfer of constitutional functions, access to courts, remedies for unlawful interference, and the position of cases already under investigation or before the courts. The constitutional proposal must be read together with the permanent and interim NCA Bills, rather than treated as a self-contained technical amendment.
Proposed amendments and rationale
Recommendations for detailed review, not final clause-specific redrafting:
- Preserve constitutional institutions. Expressly protect the separate roles and lawful powers of the Courts, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Commissioner of Police.
- Limit any new constitutional power. Define its holder, legal purpose, scope, review mechanism and relationship with existing constitutional safeguards.
- Provide effective remedies. Ensure that persons affected by coercive action retain meaningful access to an independent court.
- Reconcile the legislative package. Verify that the permanent NCA, interim NCA and advisory/oversight Bills do not create inconsistent appointment or accountability mechanisms.
Exact constitutional section references and drafting changes should follow a completed comparison of the official Bill with the Constitution as currently in force.
Text/version reviewed: Preliminary issues note based on the 20 October 2026 Order Paper and the nine-Bill NCA package; no clause-by-clause verification of Bill XVI is asserted.
Commentary updated: 2026-10-22
Editorial distinction: The official Bill document, parliamentary procedure and independent comments are separate sources. Public comments on these Bill pages are accepted subject to moderation.
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