"Delegated legislation, subordinate legislation, the powers given to the Executive and the Public Service to make regulations, are an extremely important part of modern administration and lawmaking…" Bill Hayden - Discuss.

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“Delegated legislation, subordinate legislation, the powers given to the Executive and the Public Service to make regulations, are an extremely important part of modern administration and lawmaking…” Bill Hayden

        Bill Hayden describes what secondary legislation is.  Bodies that are sanctioned to do so by parliament produce it.  These bodies can be anything from public corporations to government departments e.g. Privy Council or District councils.

        Powers are given to them and they act within these powers to create statutory instruments, orders in council and by-laws e.g. Local authorities may have statutory powers to deal with traffic control and railway safety etc.

        Secondary legislation lays down the law of primary legislation in more detail.  This is an advantage as it means that those with technical expertise and knowledge of a particular matter can fill in the details.  It also saves parliamentary time so that parliament can deal with other matters and concerns.  Parliament just lay out the framework of the legislation and the ministers etc. deal with the rest.

        This type of legislation is also useful in the sense that ministers can deal with the problems that come after the Act.  Parliament cannot see into the future.  They cannot see the problems that may arise after an Act has become law so therefore the different types of delegated legislation can deal with this e.g. Orders in council.

        Orders in council are laws formally made by the Queen on the advice of the Privy Council.  Some orders can amend or repeal primary legislation without parliamentary scrutiny, which is not the case for normal secondary legislation, e.g. Criminal Justice Bill 1990, which allowed criminal offences to be added or removed by instrument, also the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 which had changes made when the licence period for offenders was increased.  For parliament this is a disadvantage as it is not all-powerful over these delegated lawmakers.  

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        The Committee on Ministers Powers said, “whether good or bad” delegated legislation is inevitable, and, in the opinion of one of its members that it was, “a necessary evil, inevitable, but nevertheless a tendency to be watched with misgiving.”  So parliament must hold control over these legislators through the use of accountability and scrutiny.

        Auditor General of Alberta once said, “Accountability is necessary when responsibility is assigned or delegated………… an effective accountability framework is required when central control is reduced or eliminated.”

So parliament should hold these delegated legislators accountable and this can be done through the use of questions. ...

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