Regulatory Reform Committee

This is a Commons select committee (the Lords equivalent is the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee), consisting of 14 MPs. The committee considers certain orders and draft orders under the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006, the Regulatory Reform Act 2001, the Localism Act 2011, and the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004; this process is described in Chapter 6 (page 231). Its staff include legal advisers. The committee has the power to set up a subcommittee. It may also invite members of the House who are not members of the committee to attend oral hearings and ask questions, but they may not vote or count towards the quorum.

Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments

This joint committee is responsible for examining the technical aspects of delegated legislation rather than its merits - unlike the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee in the House of Lords (see page 229). It has six members from each House with an opposition MP as chair; it normally meets weekly when Parliament is sitting, but it reports only when it wishes to draw the attention of both Houses to some defect in a statutory instrument. The analysis of well over 1,000 statutory instruments each year is carried out by a staff that includes three specialist lawyers. Delegated legislation on financial matters, which is laid only before the House of Commons, is examined by the Select Committee on Statutory Instruments., consisting of the Commons members of the joint committee. Delegated legislation is described in more detail in Chapter 7 (page 223).