Overall By-laws and Orders In Council play important roles in making delegated legislation whole. Each law has its function to fulfil. The output of delegated legislation far exceeds that of Acts of Parliament, because it substantially affects the day-to-day lives of a large amount of people.
Part B
A) Mario is about to start a new job as a librarian in a small school. The job requires use of a computer monitor. The deputy head also the school health and safety officer and is anxious to comply with all relevant legislation.
From the information given I think Regulation 1 refers best to this case scenario because the regulation states “require every employer to perform a suitable and sufficient assessment of work stations to assess any health and safety risks.” In Mario’s case the employer is the deputy head teacher, which is good because they are also the school health, and safety officer who are anxious to comply with all relevant legislation. From my point of view this deputy head will also take in issue about Regulation 2 because it states” Requires employers to plan activities of those workstations so that daily work is periodically interrupted by breaks or activity change” Because of the deputy head’s anxiousness to comply with all relevant regulation she will go that extra mile to meet all the three regulation, even offering an appropriate eye test if they want which Regulation 3 state “gives users the opportunity to have an appropriate eye and eye test as soon as practicable after requesting one and at regular intervals thereafter.”
B) Amir works as a telephone –sales representative. His regular daily work requires long periods of sustained concentration as he transfers information from customers onto a computer system. He is finding it increasingly difficult to sustain his concentration.
I think Regulation 2 fits best it states “Requires employers to plan the activities of those using workstations so that daily work is periodically interrupted by breaks or activity changes. These can be informal breaks away from the computer.” As you read the Regulation you can identify the link they have because we know that Amir’s finding his work shifts too long that he can’t even concentrate. Therefore his in need of the breaks .You can find the answer to this problem in this regulation. . So the employer is liable for not having carried out their duty well. If this employer has got consideration for his employee he might even consider the use of Regulation3 because he can offer Amir the chance to have an eye test if he wishes just so he can prevent any later health and safety issues.
C) Julie works as a receptionist in a busy office. Her daily work involves monitoring a TV screen (fed from security cameras) and constant use of a computer monitor to perform a variety of functions. She has started to suffer with blurred vision. I think Regulations 3 suits best with this case scenario because we already know what she is suffering with and the solution to this case scenario is found in Regulation3when it mentions about giving the user an opportunity to have an appropriate eye test, also just bear in mind about regulation1 because if the employer had carried a suitable and sufficient assessment to assess any health and safety risks”, then may be he/she would have taken action to reduce those risks to the lowest extent possible. Even to consider Regulation 2, if only the employer had tried to plan some activity or beak changes for their employees to get away from the computer screen. The best solution to suit Julia is the informal break away from the screen for a short period each hour to ease her eyes.
Part C
Statutory instrument is also another body part that makes up delegated legislation. This is law made by government departments to apply only to those departments, in other words these types of legislation are made to relate to their particular work departments. This type of legislation plays a very major role in the society proportionally around 3000 laws is passed at the end of the year. The London underground may want to pass a new law. For this to happen, it will require of them going back to their departments, firstly identifying the statue, secondly analysing the statute, from their feedback they can then reform a new law out of the original law. But subject to two procedures.
- The affirmative resolution- This is when delegated legislation is laid before one or both houses (sometimes in draft) and becomes a law only if a motion approving it is passed within a specified amount of time (usually 28 or 40 days).
- The negative resolution- this is also another way delegated legislation is brought forward before the parliament for MP’s, then from the cabinet whoever wants can put down a motion to annul the legislation. But has to be within a specified time (usually 40 days)
This is the most influential law in our day-day to lives as the public, due to the fact that it’s made to rotate around day-day changes. So far I have mentioned all three parts of delegated legislation, their functions, below is the layout according to their importance rating from 1-3,from my point of view.
- Statutory instrument.
- Orders In Council.
- By-laws.
In order for delegated legislation to work properly, all the named forms of delegated legislation must function to their role properly. I think that it was very good idea to have the three forms of delegated legislation, so that there can be checks and balances between each other. If statutory instrument were the only means of delegated legislation this would lead to the abuse of power. I agree with the whole system and how each part of delegated legislation has a specified task to work to.
Part C
The advantages of delegated legislation are for a number of reasons. Firstly it takes pressure off the parliament because of the insufficient parliamentary time to debate every detailed rule necessary for efficient government. Mainly the parliament’s process of passing new laws takes quite a long time. I can imagine if delegated legislation was not around to come up with new laws fast and efficient for the future needs of the people. The country would be in trouble because apart form the parliament taking quite some time there is a big time difference between the queens’s signing of the new law and the time the new law takes effect. i.e. Human Rights act 1998 this act was based on ECHR in 1950, England made it into a law in 1998 but it only took effect in October 2000 . Imagine!!
Compared to a process of an act of parliament with delegated legislation it allows laws to be made more quickly than the parliament, which usually take up to two days maximum. Resulting to parliament’s slowness delegated legislation often has to be made in response to emergency and urgent problems, even better because of its fast response that it can adapt to the changes as time goes by which can be related to future needs this goes in hand with Source A “safety laws have to be complex and may need frequent updating” And the result of this legislation is it’s flexibility well as Line 5-6 say that it would have been impractical to put every complex change in the law through the full stages of parliamentary procedure.” And I agree to this statement. If there is rise to a problem as a result of a statue, parliament hasn’t got time to for see the problem in most cases because they have serious cases to deal with. For the problem to be solved delegated legislation can be put in place as of its flexibility. Which again Source A emphasises in lines 5-6.
When making laws according to modern delegated legislation. The legislation often needs to include detailed/ technical provision e.g. building regulations or safety at work rules. Which delegated legislation carry out by hiring some expertise in certain areas of the law to ensure the law in turn to be passed will be of success e.g. Social Security Act 1984 about how benefits should be paid, they called in someone of specialisation in the field to help with the change of law because they will have more depth about that side of law. Compared to the parliament members MP’s do not usually have the technical knowledge needed and even the time to call in someone. Where as delegated legislation can use experts who are familiar with the relevant areas of the law.
Behind every advantage is a disadvantage. Below am going to run through some of the disadvantages of delegated legalisation.
Because civil servants other than elected politicians usually make this type of law, it calls for the lack of democratic involvement. This is because we the public look at it from the point of view that the given role is not theirs to partake but the elected politicians. I think it sounds abit biased because sometimes these civil servants can try change the law to their own interest.
Because delegated legislation has a lot of cases to deal with and as soon as possible so sometimes when the pressure is too hard they pass on some of their work to their secretary/p.a to deal with the cases. This is referred to as sub-delegation because the people that deal with the case don’t have the original power to do so. This doesn’t look good to the public.
There’s a lack of control over delegated legislation because in reality the effective supervision over it is very difficult. First publication has only limited benefits, given the general public are frequently unaware of the existence of delegated legislation, let alone on what grounds it can be challenged and how to go about doing so. The obvious result is that the legislation which largely affects a class of individuals who are not given questioning of official rules, are unaware of their rights, or they lack financial resources to go to court and therefore will rarely be challenged.
From my point of view I like the idea of delegated legislation because it saves a lot of time and adapts to changes of our day- day lives. I believe it plays a major and good role in the society.
