Subordinate Legislation Committee
Meeting date: Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Official Report
279KB pdf
Welfare Reform Bill
This item invites the committee to consider those provisions in the Welfare Reform Bill that confer powers on the Scottish ministers to make subordinate legislation.
During the last session of the Parliament the Subordinate Legislation Committee considered a legislative consent memorandum in relation to the Welfare Reform Bill and agreed a report. It reported that the relevant clauses, clause 33 and clause 89, appeared to be acceptable in principle, but noted that the bill had not properly adopted the standard terminology for “the negative procedure” and “the affirmative procedure” set out in sections 28 and 29 of the Interpretation and Legislative Reform (Scotland) Act 2010.
The LCM under consideration today is different and so is the bill in that, amongst other things, the issue with terminology has been rectified. Clauses 33 and 89, however, remain otherwise the same and there are no new provisions of relevance to the committee. It is therefore for the committee to report to the lead committee whether, like the previous Subordinate Legislation Committee, it is content with the powers conferred on the Scottish ministers in principle, as to scope and as to the parliamentary procedure provided. The committee is invited to agree its report today. Given that clauses 33 and 89 reflect the change in terminology but are otherwise unchanged, the report that the committee is invited to agree is a repeat of the report agreed by the previous Subordinate Legislation Committee, with the concerns about terminology removed. If members have no comments on that, are they simply content?
Members indicated agreement.
I am grateful for that. Our next meeting is on Tuesday 15 November.
Meeting closed at 14:48.