Another advantage to delegated legislation is that there is a need for local knowledge in some legislation, especially by-laws which can only be effective with knowledge of the area e.g. parking restrictions. MP’s in Parliament do not have this local knowledge and probably do not care about dog fouling laws in North Tyneside therefore delegated legislation frees up the courts for more deserving or important laws in which more time and care is needed, also the sheer volume of regulation from the Firearms Act to the dog fouling laws would just clog Parliament up and delegated legislation again frees up Parliament.
Another advantage is flexibility, statutes require cumbersome procedures for introducing them and they can only be revoked or amended by another statute. Delegated legislation however can be introduced very quickly as and when it is needed and can also be revoked quickly or amended easily if it proves problematic.
However there are also a number of disadvantages to delegated legislation for example the lack of democratic involvement in a democracy.
Laws should only be passed by bodies elected by the people and although this includes local authorities it does not include companies such as Nexus who create legislation on the railways e.g. no trespassing.
Another disadvantage to delegated legislation is the risk of sub-delegation, this occurs when the delegated body gives the power they were given by Parliament to another body. Sub-delegation is very hard to control and could result in unworkable legislation.
The final disadvantage is the lack of control of delegated legislation. Despite the list of controls over delegated legislation, the reality is that effective scrutiny is difficult.
Although the scrutiny committee reviews all statutory instruments it can only report it’s findings to Parliament. It has no power to amend legislation and there is no guarantee that Parliament will read its report.
Also there is no ruling that says that Parliament need to consider any legislation given to them under negative resolution and as a result some legislation may slip through the scrutiny net.
Lack of parliamentary control was shown with the Child Support Act 1991 (the enabling Act) which set up the Child Support Agency and this established guidelines for obtaining maintenance from errant fathers. However it did not incorporate fathers who were paying unofficial maintenance, aside from this problem there were other problems with the Act and this resulted in ineffective legislation.
Lack of control is also shown with the enabling Act; the problem with the enabling Act is that it gives wide discretionary powers to ministers and so this makes it hard to prove that a piece of legislation is ultra vires.
Also to challenge a piece of legislation on the grounds that it is ultra vires requires an individual case in court before a judiciary and this may not happen until years after the legislation has been implemented, and not until someone who is prepared to challenge it will it be changed, thus affecting many people in the meantime.
Overall there are many disadvantages to delegated legislation however I think that these are outweighed by the advantages. Therefore I feel that it would be impossible to do without delegated legislation, as it is vital in most modern situations.
