Statutory Law

Basic Briefing on statutory law

A statute, strictly speaking, is an Act of Parliament. There are two kinds: public and private, but we are only concerned with public acts such as the Medicines Act, the Misuse of Drugs Act, etc. Acts are usually called primary legislation since they are the primary authority for legislation in the UK and have been through the full parliamentary debate procedure. Statutory law (or statute law) is also used to describe legislation which is subsidiary to an Act, normally in the form of Regulations or Orders. These are collectively known as statutory Instruments (or S.I.s) or subordinate or secondary legislation. Recent legislation can be located on www.hmso.gov.uk/legis.htm Here you will find details of all Acts and SIs enacted since the late 1990s, together with draft acts (i.e. bills) and SIs. Most Acts are now accompanied by Explanatory Notes which contain useful briefings from civil servants on what the bill is intended to achieve and how it relates to earlier legislation – however these notes are not part of the law iteslf. When reading a statutory instrument, start at the end with the explanatory notes!

How law is made Proposals to introduce new legislation come forward in the form of a bill. Most are government bills but sometimes they are put forward by individual members of parliament (private members’ bills). Before a bill is proposed, the government will normally signal its intentions in a “white paper”. Sometimes this is preceded by a discussion document, called a “green paper”. The programme of most primary legislation is outlined in the Queen’s speech when Parliament enters a new session in the Autumn. Each bill is introduced into the Commons at a formal first reading, (“laid” before Parliament) which is really just an announcement. At the second reading the content and object of the bill is open to debate. After the second reading, the bill goes to a committee stage which examines the detail clause by clause and any amendments suggested in debate. The Commons then consider the bill again at the report stage, followed by the third reading.These stages are then repeated in the House of Lords. Once a bill passes both Houses it is ready for Royal assent. Acts are most often “enabling”; that is, they give powers to the government, usually individual Secretaries of State, to do things. Major changes to an Act can only be made by another Act. An SI implements the detail of broad powers given by an Act. An SI does not go through Parliamentary debate. It is simply “tabled” in the name of the Minister and goes through “on the nod” if no objections are raised.

An example The disciplinary processes for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (the statutory Committee) have become out of date. The authority for the process lies in the Pharmacy Act 1954 with subordinate regulations made in 1978. The Pharmacy Act does not contain sufficient power to authorise major changes to the disciplinary process. Therefore, the government used another bill, later the Health and Social Care Act 2001, to provide powers to change the process (along with a great many other changes in NHS structure and operation). This appeared in section 60 of the act. The Society is now working on the detail of a “section 60 order” to change (actually improve) the Statutory Committee processes.

Joy Wingfield November 2003