Delegated Legislation

Delegated Legislation
                                                   

Delegated Legislation
Delegated legislation is a law made by bodies other than parliament. The bodies can only make law in their own area.

Parliament passes the power to other bodies in what is known as an enabling act/parent act.

The reason parliament passes its jurisdiction to other bodies is because parliament does not have the time to make all of the laws and therefore they can delegate the power to make legislation to other bodies such as government departments, local authorities and the Queen and Privy council. Those are the main bodies but there are also minor bodies such as private areas like airports and the London Underground.

Why have delegated legislation?
-Parliament does not have the time to make all legislation
-The local authorities have knowledge of their own area and therefore the laws will be relevant to any problems they experience
-The local authorities have the expertise knowledge of their own area.
-Delegated Legislation makes updating the law occur much more quickly than normal passage of a bill.
-In emergency situations the Queen and privy council can make laws much faster than passage of a bill could and those laws would affect the whole nation.

Acts of parliament are called supreme law which is also known as primary law, delegated legislation is known as secondary law. Therefore acts of parliament can overrule delegated legislation if it is made ultra vires.

Types of Delegated Legislation
-Statutory Instruments are made by government departments e.g finance law or war and pension departments.
-Byelaws are made by the local authorities and private companies/areas e.g South Yorkshire Borough Council and the London Underground
-Orders in council are made by the Queen and the Privy council and they can also turn EU directives into UK regulation.

Statutory Instruments
Statutory instruments are laws that are made by government departments relating to that departments area of expertise e.g the department of education only makes statutory instruments on education not health care or war. Between 3,000 and 4,000 statutory instruments are made every year.

Byelaws
Local and county councils can make local law affecting only the area that they cover because they have the important local knowledge. Byelaws can also be made by private companies as well e.g public corporations such as the London Underground.

Orders in Council
Orders in council are laws that are made by the Queen and the privy council and these laws are made in emergency situations under the Emergency powers act 1920. The Queen and the privy council can also turn EU directives into UK law. The Queen and Privy council can also make laws when parliament is not in session.

Controlling Delegated Legislation
There is a potential problem for abuse of all of these kinds of delegated legislation and therefore there have been two types of controls implemented to police the legislations. The…