Government undertakes to provide better explanations of proposed law in response to criticisms by Lords committee
Thursday 7 July 2023
In response to repeated criticism by the cross-party House of Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee (SLSC), the Government have undertaken to bring together relevant ministers to ensure they understand that providing timely and good quality explanatory documents with its legislation “are vital in facilitating parliamentary scrutiny.” (50th Report of Session 2022-23)
The Government are responding to the SLSC’s latest overview Interim report which examined the 700 statutory instruments laid by government departments in the previous 12 months. Any piece of new legislation should be accompanied by a clear explanation of what it does, why change is necessary and how much it is going to cost. The Report concluded “too often we have had to ask basic questions about the rationale for a policy or its intended effects.”
The Interim Report was the fourth in a post-pandemic series of reports that has been critical of the standard of information being provided in support of the secondary legislation the Government has laid before Parliament.
Lord Hunt of Wirral, Chair of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee said;
“The Government has undertaken to hold a meeting to draw the Committee’s concerns directly to the attention of the Ministers who sign off that legislation. This is a very welcome and significant development.
“Standards fell during the pandemic for understandable reasons but have so far failed to return to normal: our weekly reports on the Government’s regulations continue to expose examples of poor quality or missing information.
“Proper explanation of its legislation is essential to maintain a government’s accountability in a democratic society. This response undertakes to establish a short-term steering group on secondary legislation to identify ways to stimulate culture change across departments. We welcome the Government’s plan to engage the attention of senior officials and Ministers in departments and look forward to significant improvements in the quality of explanations.”
The Committee’s concerns are illustrated by its latest weekly Report, also published today. Among other things, it draws the special attention of the House of Lords to the Criminal Justice (Specified Class A Drugs) Order 2023 (SI 2023/784). The instrument expands the scope of drug testing in police detention, with the stated aims of increasing referrals to drug treatment services and thereby reducing drug-related reoffending.
When the Order was laid, the Home Office did not provide any information on the number of people affected, the costs of additional treatment and whether treatment services have the capacity to cope with the demand. In addition, important background information was not published; namely, the results of a consultation and an Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA). Given the potential impact of the policy on ethnic minorities, the Report concludes that the lack of an EIA was particularly relevant and concerning.
Commenting on this Lord Hunt added;
“The Government is now ‘talking the talk’ about providing explanatory material, but it is up to departments to ‘walk the walk’. Currently, some are not. Our Committee will be making sure that they do.”
