The UK House of Lords Constitution Committee believe that emergency powers enacted during the pandemic impacted legislative scrutiny
The UK House of Lords Constitution Committee has been working on an inquiry into the constitutional implications of the coronavirus and in its third and final report entitled Covid-19 and the use and scrutiny of emergency powers, the Committee found that the emergency powers were not subject to adequate parliamentary scrutiny, with government guidance and ministerial statements often failing to set out the law clearly, misstating the law or laying claim to legal requirements that did not exist.
Due to the lack of parliamentary scrutiny, the emergency laws created a lack of clarity around which rules were legally enforceable, posing challenges for the police and local government, leading to wrongful criminal charges, and potentially undermining public compliance, the report said.
The report makes a number of recommendations, including:
- There should be a presumption in favour of using sunset provisions in all regulations introduced during a national emergency.
- The government should seek Parliament’s approval of all affirmative instruments before they enter into force wherever possible.
- All future ministerial statements and government guidance on changes to Covid-19 restrictions should clearly distinguish information about the law from public health advice.
- A review of the use of emergency powers by the government, and the scrutiny of those powers by Parliament, should be completed in time to inform the forthcoming public inquiry and planning for any future emergencies.
- The approach adopted in response to the pandemic must not be used to justify weakened parliamentary scrutiny of government action in response to future emergencies.
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