Subordinate Legislation Committee, 21 Nov 2000

Meeting date: Tuesday, November 21, 2000

Official Report 111KB pdf

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Adoption (Intercountry Aspects) Act 1999 (Commencement No 4) (Scotland) Order 2000 (SSI 2000/390)

The main problem with the instrument concerns the non-revocation of the instrument that it supersedes, SSI 2000/223. The committee is not satisfied that matters were made clearer by the somewhat disingenuous answer given by the Executive. I raised the matter myself at the previous meeting. Revocation should have taken place.

Another problem is the undue delay in the making of the corrective instrument, which others flagged up at the previous meeting. A considerable time seems to have passed before the Executive decided that instrument SSI 2000/223 was in error.

The Executive says that the previous instrument has been revoked but one has to read both items before one can work out that that is the case.

The Queen's Printer in Scotland will put a special wee mark on SSI 2000/223 that will stop you having to read it all.

We hope.

Perhaps we could design the logo for it as well.

The principle is not about footnotes in annual editions but that legislation on the statute book should be in the correct form, format and order.

It would be very easy, if one was in some law library, to lose the second instrument and not realise that the first had been superseded. The committee is minded to draw the instrument to the attention of the Parliament on the basis that as a matter of principle instruments that have been superseded should always be revoked.

Speaking as a librarian, I can say that that matter of principle is also a professional nightmare to sort out.