Despatch Box Blog

A Statutory Instrument comes into force on 11 April that changes the legal requirements for the release of certain types of genetically modified plants. Some argue that the changes should have been made by primary, rather than delegated, legislation. Where does the boundary between the two lie?

The Brexit process, the pandemic and the approach of the Johnson Government have all tended towards Parliament’s marginalisation and the accretion of executive power. For UK in a Changing Europe’s report on the constitutional landscape, we show how – in the legislative process and control of public money and executive action, including delegated legislation.

Sanctions are imposed on an individual in two stages - by Ministers first making regulations and secondly designating the individual, using a power in those regulations. Parliament has a role in the first stage, but not the second.

The UK Government’s ‘Benefits of Brexit’ Policy Paper proposes allowing changes to retained EU law to be made "more easily" via delegated legislation. This raises constitutional concerns about the undermining of Parliament’s legislative authority.

The UK’s new Russia sanctions Regulations, being debated by the House of Commons on 22 February 2022 with one day’s notice, highlight the use of delegated legislation to introduce sanctions regimes and the challenges posed for parliamentary scrutiny of urgent measures.

A forthcoming judicial review on children-in-care highlights parliamentarians’ inability to challenge only certain aspects, rather than the whole, of a Statutory Instrument. Courts can and do provide an important backstop against unlawful use of delegated powers, but this does not diminish the need for better parliamentary oversight of delegated legislation.