ontologies

Committee consideration of statutory instruments

All statutory instruments subject to the modelled procedures must be considered by at least one of the following committees:

All instruments

The following queries will show all instruments considered by the committees and their outcome. There is also a sub query that shows all instruments that should have been considered or are due to be considered by the committee. The Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee aims to consider all bicameral instruments within three weeks of laying (not including recesses) while the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments/Select Committee on Statutory Instruments aim to consider all instruments within five weeks of laying (not including recesses). Affirmative instruments tend to take priority.

Instruments laid before Commons only or bicameral

The following queries separate SIs laid before the House of Commons only and those laid before both Houses (bicameral). The bicameral query is of the most interest as these instruments are considered by two committees so the query shows the outcomes of both side by side. The SCSI is responsible for considering House of Commons only SIs but in the 2017-19 session there were a few occasions when the JCSI considered instead:

JCSI / SCSI reasons for reporting instruments to the House(s)

The following queries show the grounds for drawing attention to an instrument by the JCSI or SCSI. While the reasons the committees may raise concerns are set out in the standing orders of both Houses, the committee generally focuses on the five reasons detailed in the Commons sessional returns. Instruments can be reported for multiple reasons and for the same reason in multiple respects. In the queries below, we’ve mentioned the Standing Order in both Houses that the reason applies to.

JCSI

SCSI

Scrutiny reserve for JCSI or JCHR suspended

The following query looks for all the occasions that House of Lords Standing Order No 72 was dispensed with. This allows a motion to approve an affirmative instrument laid before the House to be moved on that day whether or not the Joint Commmittee on Statutory Instruments or, if a remedial order, the Joint Committee on Human Rights has reported on it. As of March 2022 the JCHR reserve had not been dispensed with.

Committee consideration by time period

The following queries look at all instruments considered by committees in given time frames for example by session or year:

Session

Amending the query

To search from a certain point add the following to the query:

FILTER (str(?itemDate) > '2020-02-02')

To search within a certain range add the following to the query:

FILTER (str(?itemDate) > '2020-01-01' && str(?itemDate) < '2020-02-28')

Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee further scrutiny

The Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee has the power to invite Ministers to oral evidence sessions before or after the Committee has considered an instrument. The Committee also has the power to make further comment or provide additional information after they’ve considered an instrument. The following queries find instruments where either step has been added:

Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee’s scrutiny of coronavirus legislation

The Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee is considering statutory instruments (subject to parliamentary procedure) that are being laid to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. A dedicated webpage has been set up to provide a running list of the instruments that have been laid. Once they have been considered by the Committee, a link to the relevant report will be added. Note that this page is usually only updated during sitting times.