Delegated Legislation

Legislation in United Kingdom is becoming into a more polemical matter nowadays. It is increasingly being searched for, read and used by a large group of people all around the world. In the past, people would have to go to law libraries and the country's archive to do a more detailed study. However, in this modern era, people are just a click away from thousands of information thanks to the availability of the internet. For people who lack interest in law and are always confused with its complexity, here is some insight into the topic. Legislation is a law which has been enacted by a particular governing body also defined as the process of making it (Korris, 2003). What about delegated legislation? According to Ruth Fox (2003), delegated legislation also known as secondary legislation, is law made by an executive official under powers given to them by primary legislation. For a selected group of people, this legislation is an efficient way of conveying a successful government in a complicated stratagem. To others, the excessive usage of this body of law, giving wide circumstances to ministers, amounts to government by ministerial diktat, providing a blank cheque for ministers.

Today however, people find law intimidating, complex and intricate. This just implies that the parliament has inadequate time to scrutinize it. The Members of Parliament do not have the knowledge and expertise in this area to consider the proposed legislation effectively. The sheer volume is the main cause of the complexity of the delegated legislation. Some information about delegated legislation is also not known by the people of the public and strangely, even lawyers themselves. This legislation is also undemocratic since most of the regulations are assembled by public servants, under the supervision of a Government Minister and not by the House of Commons. Another stumbling block of this ordinance is that the Henry VIII clauses can give power to delegated legislation or repeal the Acts of Parliament, said Souper (2005). A main drawback is that the executives given power to formulate the law is deputized away from the government.

Now, let's talk about the reformation of legislation. The Labour Party in UK recognized the legislation reform as a top priority and made it a central part of their whole platform in 1997 general election. During May of 1996, Ann Taylor, the then Head of the House gave a speech entitled ‘New Labour, New Parliament' which emphasized on reforms of the parliament. She demanded the Labour Party to reinitiate the genuine footing between the executive and legislature. However, the supposed significant transformation had been peculiarly deficient from the Parliament's statutory agenda. The Modernization of the House elect council was entrusted by a dispatch to glance at the manner the House deems the ministers responsible. The commission's effort had finally resulted to several heuristic developments.