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parliamentary controls over delegated legislation - Coggle Diagram
parliamentary controls over delegated legislation
approval of the parent Act
parliament has initial control over what powers are delegated, as the enabling act sets out the limits within which any delegated legislation must be made
enabling act will state - which government minister can make the regulations,
the type of laws to be made and whether they can be made for the whole country or only for certain places,
whether the government department must consult other people before making the regulations
affirmative resolution procedure
a small number if SI will be subject to this procedure, meaning, the SI will not become law unless specifically approved by Parliament
an affirmative resolution will be included in the enabling act - it is required before new or revised police Codes of Practice under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 can come into force
one of the disadvantages of this procedure is that Parliament cannot amend the Statutory Instrument - it can only be approved, annulled or withdrawn
negative resolution procedure
most statutory instruments will be subject to a negative resolution. this means that the relevant SI will become law unless rejected by Parliament within 40 days of publication.
the main problem with this procedure is that very few of the SIs will be looked at, as many are made each year.
scrutiny by committees
these bodies are an effective check on SIs: the Joint Committee on SIs (Scrutiny Committee) and the Secondary legislation Scrutiny Committee in the House of Lords
these committees can only check the legislation once it has been made and has come into force
they can review all SIs and where necessary, draw attention of Parliament to points that need further consideration
however, the review is a technical one and not based on policy
the main grounds for referring a SI back to Parliament are that:
it imposes a tax or charge (because only an elected body has such a right,
it appears to have retrospective effect which was not provided for by the enabling act,
it appears to have gone beyond the powers given under the enabling legislation,
it makes some unusual or unexpected use of those powers,
it is unclear or defective in some way
the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee is part of the HoL and it is where any inappropriate provisions can be brought to the attention of the House before the Committee stage
this is an effective control because, if enabling provisions are made appropriately, it is more likely that legislation made under the authority of them will also be appropriate
scrutiny of SIs by Secondary Legislation Committee can be said to be effective as the committee are able to check a number of SIs
however, due to the number of SIs made each year, they are unable to check through them all thoroughly