Govt to step up its use of statutory instruments

From the FT today -

‘David Cameron has been secretly drawing up a plan to bypass an increasingly hostile anti-Tory majority in the House of Lords, which is threatening to wreak havoc with his legislative plans.

The UK prime minister will use the recent bust-up with the Lords on tax-credit reform as a chance to neuter the powers of the upper house.

Lord Strathclyde, the Tory grandee charged by Mr Cameron with reviewing the role of peers, is set to propose this month that the Lords should lose its veto over delegated or “secondary” legislation, such as the measure implementing tax-credit cuts.

Once that veto is removed, Mr Cameron is expected to step up his government’s increasing use of delegated legislation — also known as statutory instruments — to ram contentious measures through the upper house.

“We are being told to use statutory instruments wherever possible to get legislation through,” said one Conservative aide. Statutory instruments receive less parliamentary time and scrutiny than full bills.’

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9a09c7b2-9aab-11e5-be4f-0abd1978acaa.html

Strange this, from the man who is prepared to commit the lives of British Service personnel in the defence of democracy.

Does this mean the end of the “one in, two out” policy, or was that just a silly gimmick?  It’s OK, don’t answer

A Bill

to allow any Secretary of State to make regulations to do whatever they want.

Yah boo sucks

More today .... Govt to try to limit the powers of the Lords in the wake of peers having blocked £4bn cuts to tax credits

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/dec/16/tories-to-announce-plans-to-curtail-lords-powers