There are a number of reasons why parliament may wish to do delegate its law making powers. Parliament does not have time to consider and debate every small detail of complex regulations. The government of the day chooses to push its own major legislation through parliament, this is because if the government is to retain its credibility it needs to keep some of the promises it made before the election in the manifesto.
Parliament may not have the necessary technical expertise or knowledge required for the needs of certain industry or local people. Politicians called councillors are elected by local people to run local authorities so that they can pass by-laws in accordance to the needs of local people. It is thought that it is better for Parliament to debate the main principles thoroughly, but leave the detail to be filled in by those who have expert knowledge of it.
The process of passing an act of parliament can take a considerable amount of time, even where there is no opposition to them. In a time of emergency parliament may not be able to pass law quickly enough thus delegated legislation is preferred because it can easily be amended or revoked when necessary. This allows the law to be kept up to date and provide flexibility for new or unforeseen circumstances. E.g. Orders in council a form of delegated legislation are made by the Crown and Privy Council in times of emergency.
- Discuss the disadvantages of parliament delegating its law-making powers to others.
The main criticism is that it takes law-making away from the democratically elected House of Commons and allows non-elected people to make law. This is acceptable provided there is sufficient control, but, as we know, Parliament’s control is fairly limited. This criticism cannot be made of by-laws made by local authorities since these are elected bodies and accountable to the local citizens.
Another problem is that of sub-delegation, which means the law making authority is handed down another level. This causes comments that much of our law is made by civil servants and merely ‘rubber stamped’ by the minister of that department.
The large volume of delegated legislation also gives rise to criticism since it makes it difficult to discover what the present law is. This problem is aggravated by a lack of publicity, as much delegated legislation is made in private in contrast to the public debates in parliament.
Finally, delegated legislation shares with acts of parliament the same problem of obscure wording that can lead to difficulty in understanding the law.
