HLP 116 - Delegated Legislation and Parliament: A Response to the Strathclyde Review

Book excerpt: Following a defeat in the House of Lords on the Draft Tax Credits (Income Thresholds and Determination of Rates) (Amendment) Regulations 2015, the Government asked Lord Strathclyde to examine how the Government might "secure their business in Parliament" and to consider how to ensure "the decisive role of the elected House of Commons in relation to its primacy on financial matters, and secondary legislation". There are indeed serious problems with the current system of delegated legislation that must be addressed. But by tasking Lord Strathclyde to consider the balance of power between the two Houses of Parliament, it seems to us that the Government focused his Review on the wrong questions. It consequently addressed the wrong issues. We believe that the more serious concerns arising from the delegated legislation process are rooted in the relationship between Parliament and the Executive. For that reason our report examines not only the options considered by the Strathclyde Review, but wider issues relating to the delegated legislation process that were outside the remit of that Review. Successive governments have proposed primary legislation containing broad and poorly-defined delegated powers, including Henry VIII powers, that give wide discretion to ministers - often with few indications as to how those powers should be used. This Committee and others have noted a trend whereby delegated legislation has increasingly been used to address issues of policy and principle, rather than to manage administrative and technical changes.