Delegated legislation in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, delegated legislation is legislation or law that is passed otherwise than in an Act of Parliament (or an Act of the Scottish Parliament, Northern Ireland Assembly or National Assembly for Wales). Instead, an enabling Act (also known as the parent Act or empowering Act) confers a power to make delegated legislation on a Government Minister or another person or body. Several thousand pieces of delegated legislation are made each year, compared with only a few dozen Acts of Parliament.

Delegated legislation can be used for a wide variety of purposes, ranging from relatively narrow, technical matters (such as fixing the date on which an Act of Parliament will come into force, or setting the level of fees payable for a public service, e.g. the issue of a passport), to filling in the detail of how an Act setting out broad principles will be implemented in practice.

The use of delegated legislation has a number of advantages.

Firstly, it allows laws to be enacted without using up scarce Parliamentary time on technical matters, for example the fine detail of a public sector pension scheme or the precise design of traffic signs, thereby freeing Parliament to discuss matters of broad principle and policy.

Secondly, it allows laws relating to technical matters to be prepared by those with the relevant expert knowledge.

Thirdly, delegated legislation is flexible enough to deal speedily with changing circumstances, for example increasing costs of services, developments in scientific knowledge or minor changes in policy. This also makes it invaluable in emergencies when very swift action is required – delegated legislation made under emergency powers can be drafted, enacted and brought into force in a matter of hours rather than the days, weeks or months that would be required to pass an Act of Parliament.

Delegated legislation can also be criticised on the grounds that it is subject to less parliamentary scrutiny than primary legislation (but see the article on Statutory Instruments for a description of the parliamentary controls which are in place), and thereby may potentially be used by the Government in ways which Parliament had not intended or appreciated when it conferred the power.

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