Advantages and Disadvantages of Delegated Legislation

Question 1

What are the 4 main advantages of delegated legislation?

Answer 1

• Saves Parliamentary Time
• Allows consultation
• Need for technical expertise
• Acts of Parliament would otherwise take a long time

Question 2

Why do Parliament not have time to consider and debate all regulations?

Answer 2

as many have small details which are too complex

Question 3

What is it impossible to expect from MP’s?

Answer 3

impossible to expect them to have all the necessary knowledge to draw up laws on controlling various issues

Question 4

What are examples of issue which are impossible for MP’s to have all the necessary knowledge to draw up laws on?

Answer 4

• technology
• ensuring environmental safety
• dealing with a vast array of different industrial problems
• operating complex taxation schemes

Question 5

What is it better for Parliament to debate leaving the detail to experts?

Answer 5

to debate the main principles thoroughly

Question 6

Why is consultation important for rules on technical matters ?

Answer 6

as it is necessary to make sure that the regulations are technically workable

Question 7

Who can benefit from further consultation before regulations are drawn up?

Answer 7

Ministers

Question 8

What is the main criticism of delegated legislation?

Answer 8

that it takes law-making away from the democratically elected House of Commons and allows non-elected people to make law

Question 9

Why is it especially unacceptable that delegated legislation allows unelected people to make law?

Answer 9

as Parliament’s control of delegated legislation is limited

Question 10

What are not included in the main criticism of unelected people making law?

Answer 10

Bylaws made by local authorities since these are elected by local citizens

Question 11

What is sub-delegation?

Answer 11

this means that the law-making authority is handed down another level

Question 12

Who makes the ‘sub-delegation’ ?

Answer 12

civil servants

Question 13

Why is sub delegation such a criticism?

Answer 13

as this effectively means that the law is ‘rubber stamped’ by the Minister of that Department

Question 14

What is a problem with the large volume of delegated legislation?

Answer 14

it makes it difficult to discover present law

Question 15

What aggravates the problem of the large volume of delegated legislation?

Answer 15

the lack of publicity

Question 16

Why is there a lack of publicity in delegated legislation?

Answer 16

as much delegated legislation is made in private in contrast to the public debates of Parliament

Question 17

What is a disadvantage of delegated legislation which is shared with Acts of Parliaments?

Answer 17

the same problem of obscure wording that can lead to difficulty in understanding the law

Question 18

What are the 4 main disadvantages of delegated legislation?

Answer 18

1. undemocratic , rubber stamped
2. risk of sub-delegation
3. large volume, difficult to discover the present law
4. lack of publicity, Hard to interrupt if has obscure wording

Question 19

What are the 3 reasons for delegated legislation?

Answer 19

• knowledge and expertise
• saving parliamentary time
• can be changed more quickly than Acts of Parliament