Delegated legislation Flashcards
What is the parent act?
- When parliament gives authority for a body other than themselves to make laws (DELEGATED LEGISLATION)
- Also known as enabling act
What are the 3 types of delegated legislation?
- Orders in council
- Statutory instruments
- Bylaws
What are orders in council?
- A type of delegated legislation that effectively allows the government to make legislation without going through parliament
- Gives the Queen and Privy Council the authority to make “orders in council”
What does the term statutory instruments refer to?
- Refers to the rules and regulations made by Government ministers
- Major method of law making- about 3000 brought into force each year
What are by-laws?
- Local laws involving matters such as traffic control, parking restrictions etc
- Made by authorities to cover matters within their own area
- Can be made by certain companies
Why is it important that there is control over delegated legislation?
- Important since in many instances it is made by non-elected bodies
- Control is exercised by parliament and courts
What are the several ways parliament controls delegated legislation?
- the Enabling Act
- The Scrutiny Committee/Delegated Powers Scrutiny Committee
- Laying before parliament (resolutions)
- Questions by MPs
What is the enabling act?
- Sets out the limits in regards to the power parliament has over delegated legislation
What are affirmative resolutions?
- Means that the statutory instrument will not become law unless specifically approved by Parliament
What are negative resolutions?
- Negative resolutions are when relevant statutory instruments will be law unless rejected by parliament within 40 days
What is the super-affirmative resolution procedure?
- Gives Ministers wide powers to reform acts
- Available if the delegated legislation is made under the authority of the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006
What are scrutiny committees?
- When a more effective check is made by a Joint Committee on statutory instruments
- They review all SI but they themselves have no power to alter or stop any SI becoming law, can only draw attention to matter
What are the main reasons for referring SI back to parliament?
- Imposes tax or charge
- Appears to have retrospective effect
- Goes beyond powers given under enabling act
- Makes unexpected use of those powers
- Unclear or defective in some way
Explain the effectiveness of parliamentary controls
- Sheer amount of delegated legislation means they cannot all be given proper scrutiny
- Once delegated legislation has come into force it is difficult to remove it
- DL often technical and complex, can be difficult for those scrutinising it to understand
- Scrutiny committees can only make recommendations to Parliament- have no power themselves
Who can challenge delegated legislation in courts?
- By a person who has sufficient interest or standing in the case
- Can be challenged by judicial review on the grounds it is ultra vires (goes beyond powers)
What are the controls by courts?
- It is ruled ultra vires and is therefore void
- It is ultra vires because correct procedure has not been followed
- Ultra vires if it is unreasonable
What must a person have in order to challenge delegated legislation?
- Standing (must be affected by it)
What are the reasons for delegated legislation?
- Detailed law- parliament does not have time to deal with all the detail so can delegate this to another body and retain control
- Expert knowledge- expertise required for many laws, parliament does not necessarily have this knowledge
- Local knowledge- for by-laws local knowledge is essential
- Consultation- some parties insist that certain parties are consulted before delegated legislation is made
What are the advantages of delegated legislation?
- Saves parliamentary time
- Technical expertise
- Allows consultation
- Allows for quick law making
- Easy to amend
What are the disadvantages of delegated legislation?
- Undemocratic
- Sub-delegation
- Large volume- lack of publicity
- Difficult wording
