Regulatory Reform Act

The Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill contains provisions to increase the scope of regulatory reform powers (following a review undertaken by the Better Regulation Task Force) in order to tackle red tape and unnecessary regulatory burdens, building on the powers of the Regulatory Reform Act 2001. The Committee examines the provisions of the Bill as brought to the Lords in May 2006 (HLB 109, session 2005-06; ISBN 0108422399) which it finds to have been changed significantly since the Bill was first introduced into the Commons in January 2006. Although the Committee finds that the Bill proposes the greatest delegation of power to Ministers that it has seen, it does not find the regulatory reform provisions inappropriate, although it questions whether the 2001 Act could not itself have been amended. The provisions relating to consolidation, simplification and implementation of Law Commission recommendations are found to be unsuitable for delivery by delegated legislation and it is suggested that primary legislation subject to special procedure would be a better option to legislate for such purposes.

The Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill (HCB 111, session 2005-06; ISBN 0215706676) contains provisions to increase the scope of regulatory reform powers to give Ministers a wide and general power to amend, repeal and replace primary and secondary legislation, including that recently approved, as well as to change the common law by Order. This document sets out the Government's response to the Committee's report (HCP 878, session 2005-06, ISBN 0215027361) which highlighted concerns that the proposed safeguards in the Bill are unlikely to provide a sufficient counterbalance to the increased Ministerial powers.