(ii) Delegated (secondary) legislation
Generally speaking, delegated legislation is law made by some person or body to whom Parliament has delegated its general law-making power. A validly enacted piece of delegated legislation has the same legal force and effect as the Act of Parliament under which it is enacted.
Thus delegated legislation is law made by some person, or body, to whom Parliament has delegated its general law-making power. The output of delegated legislation in any year greatly exceeds the output of Acts of Parliament and, therefore, at least statistically it could be argued that delegated legislation is actually more significant than primary Acts of Parliament.
There are various types of delegated legislation including:
(i) Orders in Council permit the government, through the Privy Council to make law without the need to go through the full parliamentary process.
(ii) Statutory Instruments are the means through which government ministers introduce particular regulations under powers delegated to them by parliament in enabling legislation.
(iii) Bye-laws are the means through which local authorities and other public bodies can make legally binding rules and may be made under such enabling legislation as the Local Government Act (1972). The use of delegated legislation has advantages over primary legislation:
(i) Time-saving. Delegated legislation can be introduced quickly where necessary in particular cases and permits rules to be changed in response to emergencies or unforeseen problems.
(ii) Flexibility. The use of delegated legislation permits ministers to respond on an ad hoc basis to particular problems as and when they arise.
(iii) Access to particular expertise. Given the highly specialised and extremely technical nature of many of the regulations that are introduced through delegated legislation it is necessary, therefore, that those authorised to introduce delegated legislation should have access to the external expertise required to make appropriate regulations. In regard to bye-laws, local knowledge should give rise to more appropriate rules than general Acts of Parliament.
There are, however, some disadvantages in the prevalence of delegated legislation:
(i) Accountability. Parliament is presumed to be the source of statute law, but with respect to delegated legislation government ministers, and the civil servants, who work under them to produce the detailed provisions, are the real source of the legislation. As a consequence, it is sometimes suggested that the delegated legislation procedure gives more power than might be thought appropriate to such unelected individuals.
(ii) Bulk. Given the sheer mass of such legislation, both Members of Parliament, and the general public, face difficulty in keeping abreast of delegated legislation. |
