This report presents original research data on delegated legislation in the 2015-16 parliamentary session. In doing so, it seeks to plug the statistical hole that exists in the understanding of the delegated legislation process, for parliamentarians, officials and observers alike.
This 2017 research report in our Westminster Lens data series builds on our 2014 study The Devil is in the Detail: Parliament and Delegated Legislation. That study laid bare the complexities, weaknesses and contradictions in the delegated legislation scrutiny process, in the first comprehensive study of this process in decades.
This report on delegated legislation in the 2015-16 parliamentary session shines further light on the process by providing detailed original data on the types of delegated powers used, the types, volume and flow of delegated legislation, the amount of parliamentary scrutiny to which Statutory Instruments were subject during the session, and the results of the parliamentary scrutiny process. The report thus furnishes essential data to improve the quality of the political debate around the rights and wrongs of delegated legislation and its scrutiny.
Introduction
Henry VIII powers
Volume
Number of pages
By department
EU-related instruments
Type of instrument
House of Commons-only instruments
English votes for English laws (EVEL)
The scrutiny process
Scrutiny time
Scrutiny of negative instruments
The 21-day rule
Scrutiny of affirmative instruments 19
Rejecting instruments
Withdrawn and correcting instruments
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