Subordinate Legislation Committee
Meeting date: Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Official Report
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Instruments subject to Negative Procedure
Town and Country Planning (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 (SSI 2012/325)
No points have been raised under any of the reporting grounds, but the regulations raise general issues about the choice of delegated powers and the proper programming of subordinate legislation. When a choice of enabling powers is available to make provisions in subordinate legislation, the committee would normally expect the provisions to be made under the powers that are more specific, or tailored to them, rather than more general powers. That will be particularly appropriate when a choice of enabling powers involves a choice of a greater or lesser degree of parliamentary scrutiny of the provisions.
As the provisions in the regulations relate directly to public service reform matters, they could have been made under the more specific powers to make ancillary provisions in section 17(9) of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, rather than under the more general powers relating to planning applications in the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997. Had that been done, the provisions could have been included in the draft Public Services Reform (Planning) (Local Review Procedure) (Scotland) Order 2013 and the draft Public Services Reform (Planning) (Pre-application consultation) (Scotland) Order 2013, which the committee considered last week.
In that case, the regulations would not have been required in addition to those orders, and the provisions would have been subject to the super-affirmative procedure—to which those orders are subject—rather than the negative procedure. That would also have avoided the anomaly that the period within which the Parliament may reject the purely consequential changes that are made by the regulations is likely to expire prior to the Parliament having determined whether it agrees to the two super-affirmative orders that give rise to the necessity for the regulations.
Does the committee have any comments on the matter?
Members: No.
Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 (Child Protection Emergency Measures) Regulations 2012 (SSI 2012/334)
Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 (Rights of Audience of the Principal Reporter) Regulations 2012 (SSI 2012/335)
Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 (Appeals against Dismissal by SCRA) Regulations 2012 (SSI 2012/337)
Act of Sederunt (Fees of Sheriff Officers) (Amendment) (No 2) 2012 (SSI 2012/341)
The committee agreed that no points arose on the instruments.