Acts Of Parliament And Delegated Legislation example essay topic

Delegated Legislation Is A Necessary Evil. How Far Is This An Accurate Assessment Of This Process There are three sources of law in this country, they are case law, EU law, and legislation. Legislation is what is we will be looking at in this essay. There are two types of legislation, Acts of Parliament and Delegated legislation.

More specifically we will be looking at delegated legislation. Delegated legislation is law made somebody or something other than parliament. To which parliament has delegated the power. I feel that the evil mentioned in the title is that this could be seen as an undemocratic method of law making. This is because many of the people involved in this method of law making are not directly accountable to the English public.

This is because most of these people arent voted for, therefor they cannot be truly seen as our representatives. There are three different types of delegated legislation; orders in council, statutory instruments and bylaws. Each one varies in how undemocratic they are so they will be studied differently. Orders in council are made by the privy council.

The privy council is called in times of emergency, when parliament is not actually sitting. This because in emergencies it may take too long to for members of parliament to reach the house of commons to make a decision on the matter. An example of this is the recent fuel strike where the Privy council was called together to make a decision on the matter. This consists of the Queen, the Prime minister and appointed privy councillors. This could be seen as very undemocratic because the only member there that has been voted for by the public is the Prime minister. However although these Privy councillors are appointed by the queen, this is done so under the recommendations by the government.

So they are although not directly accountable they are in a very roundabout way accountable to the public through the government. Also the privy council was given its power and limitations by a parent act passed by parliament called the Emergency Powers Act. In this way the privy council are made even more accountable to the British public because what power the privy council has can be taken away at any time by government, because of parliamentary sovereignty which states that the government can change any previous law passed. The conclusion therefor is that this is not a totally democratic method of law making but because the government have some say in who becomes its member and the Prime minister is elected and its powers given to them by the government its not totally undemocratic either. Bylaws can be made by local authorities to cover matters in their own area also the can be made by public corporations.

Where the local authorities are concerned there is no problem about how democratic they are because the parent Act called Local Governments Act 1972 was passed by MPs and the councillors who actually pass these laws are voted for. These authorities make parking regulations etc. The problem here is the laws passed by public corporations. Only link they have with the general public is that people use them. In no way are any of these people in these corporations accountable to the public apart those of normal business. The only way that parliament is involved is passing of the parent Act that allows these companies to pass delegated legislation.

This is not too big a problem however since they only really make rules that are to be followed when you are on their premises and using their services. An example of this is when London Underground banned smoking on its premises. So it only affects people who use their services so does not affect the general public much. Also they are accountable in that if they make rules that people dont like people will stop using their services. Statutory instruments are passed by government ministers and departments.

These powers were given to these departments and ministers by parent acts. Theoretically there should not be any problems here because all government departments are headed by a minister that has been elected e.g. The Road traffic Act gave the minister for transport the power to regulations about speed limits etc. However the problem occurs when the ministers dont have the time to keep an eye on all that is going on because this is the method that most law is made. So it may not always be the ministers that are totally in control of this process other may be involved. The problem is whether this not totally democratic method of law making is necessary enough to outweigh the fact that its not totally democratic in a democratic country. The main consideration is that parliament does not have time to pass every piece of legislation that is needed and do this properly.

The amount of legislation that needs to be passed each year makes it impossible for parliament to take care of it all. Also parliament does not have the knowledge to deal with all the problems in this country. Parliament does not have the local knowledge to set proper parking regulations for the whole of England. Also it does not have the technical knowledge to deal with all areas i.e. parliament does not have the technical knowledge needed to pass legislation to control technology etc to make sure its safe for the environment and people. Things like this require the knowledge that local authorities have and experts in those particular fields. The other way to deal with this is consultation but that would take even more time than it does now to pass each piece of legislation.

Also it takes considerable time to pass each piece of legislation in parliament. It may sometime not be able to do this fast enough. This is the reason for the Privy council it also applies for other types of delegated legislation. The final reason why I feel that delegated legislation is acceptable is because parliament can always overrule these pieces of delegated legislation. This is because parliament has set provisions in place so that it is more in control.

These are affirmative resolution. In these situations the statutory instruments legislation will not become law until parliament say so. Negative resolutions means that legislation can be rejected by government. Also scrutiny committees are in place monitor statutory instruments and if necessary bring it to the attention of both houses of parliament.

This means that Parliament is always in control and will act in its own interests to make sure that the government of that time stays in power, making those who pass delegated legislation once again accountable.