Secondary legislation
Contents
How do committees look at secondary legislation?
When secondary legislation is sent to the Parliament (also known as “laid before the Parliament’) it is looked at by at least 1 committee but often 2.
The first committee is the Delegated Powers and Law Reform (DPLR) Committee. It looks at every SSI to:
- check the SSI makes changes that the original Act allows it to make
- make sure it’s clear, accurate, and written properly
The DPLR Committee will report to the lead committee to let it know if it is happy with the SSI.
The lead committee looks at what the SSI will actually do. For example, if it is about education, it will go to the Education, Children and Young People Committee. That committee will check to see whether the policy changes being made are the correct ones.
Usually committees deal with secondary legislation but sometimes it can be looked at by the whole Parliament in the Chamber, for example if there is not enough time for it to be considered by the lead committee.