Delegated Legislation Flashcards
(9 cards)
What is DL
When a parent act allows a secondary body to make laws
State the types of DL
- Orders in Council
- Statutory instruments
- By-laws
What are orders in council
Laws made by the King’s privy council, save parliamentary time, fast in emergencies (Constitutional Reform Act 2003, Civil Contingency Act 2012)
What are statutory instruments
Laws or clauses made by govt ministers, often sub-delegated to other dept members, experts in area, >3000 passed a year
What are by-laws
Laws made by councils which parliament lacks time or local knowledge to pass, eg. no ball games/smoking in an area
What are the parliamentary controls on DL
- Parent act (clearly state power and responsibility)
- Affirmative Resolution Order (parliament must scrutinise before passing, often for controversial acts eg. abortion)
- Negative Resolution Order (parliament has 40 days after passing to dispute)
- HoL scrutiny committee (report to HoL and regularly scrutinise DL)
- Joint scrutiny committee (check SI for retrospective liability, imposition of tax and poor wording)
What are the court controls on DL
Judicial review = a person with standing (affected by DL) applies to KBD for judges to evaluate if DL is ultra vires
- Procedural UV = fails to follow parent act (Aylesbury Mushrooms case)
- Substantive UV = exceeds powers given in parent act (AG v Fulham Corp)
- Wednesbury unreasonableness = outrageous in its defiance of logic
Describe the advantages of delegated legislation
- Saves parliamentary time
- Faster in emergencies
- Able to concentrate on parent act
- Expertise
- Faster implementation of EU directives
Describe the disadvantages of delegated legislation
- Lack publicity
- Not always effective
- Substantial DL (hard to keep track of)
- UV conflict parliamentary sovereignty
- Statutory instruments breach separation of powers
- Undemocratic
- No judicial control without standing
