law making: delegated legislation, paper 2 sec a Flashcards
(19 cards)
what is delegation?
- assign responsibility to someone else
- passing power downwards to curate legislation
who can powers be delegated to?
- government departments/ministers eg. home office, benefits agency
- public organisations eg. London agents
- local authorities eg. council
limited parliamentary time
parliament has limited time to pass law - government will push its own major legislation
local knowledge
parliament can deal with needs of local people, politician called councillors are elected by local people to run local authorities
specialisation
MPs can’t be expert in everything, some laws need professionals
fast response
delegated legislation can be brought in quicker than bills
future needs
delegated legislation can be used to ament legislation more quickly and efficiently
statutory instruments
- enables ministers to make changes to law
- created by government departments
- gives guidance about how the new piece of legislation is to be written and processed
- departments given permission by a ‘parent act’, sometimes called an enabling act
- example, Bridgette Philipson, executor of education
- statutory instruments act 1946
- about 3000 passed every year
negative resolution
- most SI bought in by NR
- after SI is written it is shown to parliament, if no one objects within 40 days it becomes law
- if there is an objection then SI /must be delegated in the House of Lords and House of Commons or in a standing committee
affirmative resolution
- small number of SI’s will be subjected to AR
- this must be debated and voted on before it becomes law
- only takes place in House of Commons
- eg. police and criminal evidence act 1984, any new police code
by-laws
- a law made by local authority or corporation
- county council can pass laws which affect the whole country - district or town council can only make by-laws for its district or town
- eg. speed limits, banning drinking of alcohol in public places, when dogs can be exercised on beaches
- other large public companies can create eg. thameslink
orders in council
- powers made by the king
- privy council: prime minister and top officials
- effectively allows the government to make laws without going through parliament
- can be made on wide range of pf matters: eg. transferring responsibilities, can bring an act into being, used if a national emergency
creating orders in council in time of national emergency
- the powers for the council to create emergency law comes from the emergence powers act 1920
- eg. food and mouth crisis 2001, affected farm, cattle was suffering from this disease, easily spread, gave powers to army to control
- covid 19
controlling and supervising delegated legislation: scrutiny committee
- joint select committee on SI is responsible for checking SI’s and letting parliament know if they are any issues
- if organisation has gone beyond power ‘ultravives’
controlling and supervising delegated legislation: judicial review
- all DL can be reviewed by the courts
- all hearings in high court
- asking a high court judge if law is in order or not
- main reason is when organisation has acted beyond its power (ultra vires)
controlling and supervising delegated legislation: parent act
- the PA which gave power in the first place should be carefully drafted to make sure that defects and problems are reduced to the minimum
- ministerial approval is used to support the monitoring of delegated legislation
ultra vires
gone beyond the power given by parliament in the parent act
substantive ultra vires
it is ruled by the court to be ultra vires meaning it is void and of no effect - gone beyond power given
procedural ultra vires
it is ultra vires because the correct procedure has not been followed
