There are times as a journalist when it feels good to be the only one that knows something.

Whether it’s an embargoed explosive report or an ‘off-the-record’ chat, knowledge is power. But there are some times when knowledge sits uncomfortably, when those who should know are left in the dark whilst I sit on key information.

Today is one of those times. We were told at the beginning of last week that the Civil Procedure Rules were due to be published by the Ministry of Justice last Friday in the form of a Statutory Instrument.

Finally, this was the clarity lawyers have been crying out for, with the Jackson-Day of 1 April looming into view.

But it was delayed. For reasons we know not (yes, even us) the announcement was put back to 9.30am on Tuesday. Only it never appeared then either. Instead we were left refreshing the Legislation.gov.uk page in the hope that the top line of The Timber and Timber Products (Placing on the Market) Regulations 2013 would be replaced.

Still we waited. By lunchtime we were told by the MoJ that a ‘printing error’ had caused it to be delayed. And still the profession waited. But we didn’t. In fact journalists were sent a copy of the rules, without embargo, late on Tuesday afternoon.

We had the knowledge and the power – whilst those actually affected by the rule changes were left grappling in the dark.

Fortunately, the new rules had quickly appeared in a separate link and were visible to anyone with a degree in Googling.

As I write, the document is officially set to be added as an SI at 3pm. That’s more than five days since it was first supposed to be set down.

Perhaps we’re breaking a certain taboo in explicitly linking to an unofficial link before the document is published. But this is one time I’m happy to pass on this bit of information and cross the Rubicon. There are 31 working days until J-Day and the profession can’t wait a moment longer to know how to cope with it.

John Hyde is a Gazette reporter

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