Legislative Services Branch Evaluation

Appendix E: Client Survey Questionnaire

Client Survey

In which official language would you like to complete the questionnaire? / Dans quelle langue officielle voulez-vouz répondre au questionnaire?

Introduction

The Department of Justice is conducting an evaluation of the Legislative Services Branch (LSB). The purpose of the evaluation is to assess the extent to which the LSB provides relevant and effective legislative and regulatory drafting services to the federal government.

Thank you for participating in a survey for the evaluation of the LSB. The purpose of this survey is to obtain information on your perspectives and experiences with the services provided by the LSB, including legislative and regulatory drafting services.

Your participation is completely voluntary. Your identity will not be attached to your individual responses. Responses from the survey will be analysed in aggregate. Your individual answers will not be shared with the LSB.

The survey should take approximately 15 minutes to complete. We would appreciate your completing this survey by [Date].

R.A. Malatest & Associates Ltd., a professional research firm, was hired by the Department to assist with the evaluation. If you have questions about the survey, please contact Carole Chartrand of R.A. Malatest & Associates Ltd., at c.chartrand@malatest.com or at 613-688-1847, extension103. For questions about the evaluation in general, you may communicate with Louise Grace of the Department of Justice Evaluation Division, at louise.grace@justice.gc.ca or at 613-946-7473.

1. When was the last time you received services from LSB?

2. What type of service(s) have you received from LSB in the past five years? (Please check all that apply) [1.1]

3. Are there any other services that you would need from LSB that are not currently available? [1.1,1.2]

Legislative (Bill) Drafting Services

[Ask Q4-Q6 of those who selected Legislative Drafting Services in Q2]

4. Approximately how many legislative drafting projects (Bills) have you been involved in over the past five years? [1.2, 5.2]

5. On average, what was the duration of the legislative drafting projects (Bills) you have been involved with? [2.1, 5.2]

6. The following questions assess your level of satisfaction with various aspects of the services provided to you. Please rate your level of agreement with the following aspects of the legislative (Bill) drafting services that LSB provided you in the past five years.

To what extent do you agree that the LSB …

a. responded in a timely manner to requests for legislative drafting services [5.2]

b. worked to establish mutually acceptable deadline(s) [2.1; 5.2]

c. met mutually acceptable deadline(s) [2.1; 5.2]

d. fully understood the nature of the problem/issue for which you received assistance [2.1]

e. sought your expectations regarding the desired policy outcomes of the legislative drafting [2.1]

f. advised you of issues/developments which may impact your department/ agency, if applicable [2.1]

g. regularly provided informative progress reports or ongoing feedback about the status of your request for services [2.1]

h. identified potential legal risks related to the legislative drafting work, if applicable [3.3]

j. involved you in the review/development of legal options to mitigate identified legal risks, if applicable [3.3]

k. proposed appropriate solutions for legal and drafting issues raised, if applicable [2.3]

l. provided options (e.g., instrument, alternatives) appropriate to your policy and program objectives, if applicable [2.1,2.2]

m. provided high-quality legislative drafting services overall [1.1]

Regulatory Drafting Services

[Ask Q7-Q11 of those who selected Regulatory Drafting Services in Q2]

7. How many regulatory drafting projects have you been involved in over the past five years? [1.2, 5.2]

8. On average, what was the duration of the regulatory drafting project(s) you have been involved with? [2.1, 5.2]

9. What sections of the Drafting and Advisory Services Group have provided you with LSB regulatory drafting services? (Please check all that apply)

10. What section or unit provided you with the majority of your LSB regulatory drafting services? (Please check one only and respond to the rest of this section based on the response you have checked)

11. The following questions assess your level of satisfaction with various aspects of the services provided to you. Please rate your level of agreement with the following aspects of the regulatory drafting services that you were provided in the past five years.

To what extent do you agree that the LSB …

a. responded in a timely manner to requests for regulatory drafting services [5.2]

b. worked to establish mutually acceptable deadline(s) [2.1, 5.2]

c. met mutually acceptable deadline(s) [2.1, 5.2]

d. fully understood the nature of the problem/ issue for which you received assistance [2.1]

e. sought your expectations regarding the desired policy outcomes of the regulatory drafting [2.1]

f. advised you on issues/developments which may impact your department/ agency, if applicable [2.1]

g. regularly provided informative progress reports or ongoing feedback about the status of your request for services [2.1]

h. identified potential legal risks related to the regulatory drafting work, if applicable [3.3]

i. involved you in the review/development of legal options to mitigate identified legal risks, if applicable [3.3]

j. proposed appropriate solutions for legal and drafting issues raised, if applicable [2.3]

k. provided options (e.g., instrument, alternatives) appropriate to your policy and program objectives, if applicable [2.1, 2.2]

l. provided high-quality regulatory drafting services overall [1.1]

Overall Considerations

[Ask All]

12. Please rate your overall level of satisfaction with the following aspects of the legislative products or services you were provided.

a. Accessibility of legislative products and services in the official language of your choice [2.2]

b. Provision of legislative products in formats that are easy to access [2.2]

c. Consistency of the advice and legislative products provided [2.1]

d. Clarity of the legislative texts drafted [2.2]

e. LSB’s capacity to respond to requests [1.1, 5.2]

13. How would you rate your knowledge of the LSB service standards? [2.3]

14. Please rate your level of understanding of your department's/agency’s legal risks as related to its legislation and/or regulations (i.e., likelihood of adverse outcome). [3.3]

15. How would you qualify your own awareness of legislative principles, processes and options? [2.3]

16. Have you taken part in any training provided by the LSB with respect to increasing awareness and understanding of legislative principles, processes and options? [2.3, 2.4]

17. [If Yes] How would you qualify this training in terms of content, relevance and clarity? Please rate. [2.3, 2.4]

a. Content

b. Relevance

c. Clarity

18. In your opinion, what, if any, obstacles present a challenge to obtaining LSB legal services? (Please check all that apply) [5.2]

19. Do you have any further comments you would like to add?

Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey.