acts and statutory instruments
DESCRIPTION
UK Volume 1950 to 2014TRANSCRIPT
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Acts and Statutory Instruments: the volume of UK legislation 1950 to 2014
Standard Note: SN/SG/2911
Last updated: 19 March 2014
Author: Richard Cracknell/Rob Clements
Section Social & General Statistics Section
While the number of Acts has if anything been declining over the last 20 to 30 years, the number of Statutory Instruments (many of which are not considered by or laid before Parliament) has been increasing. The number of pages of legislation has been higher in recent years compared with 30 or 40 years ago. This note looks at the volume of legislation over the last 60 or so years. It covers both primary and secondary (or delegated) legislation. Figures are shown for calendar years and parliamentary sessions, the length of which varies depending on the timing of general elections and Queens Speeches. The note is intended to deal with questions frequently asked of the Library; it does not consider the detailed background to any trends shown.
Contents
1 Calendar year data 2
2 Pages of legislation 6
3 Sessional data 1997-98 to 2012-13 8
3.1 Bills & Acts 8
3.2 Delegated legislation Statutory Instruments 9
3.3 Time spent debating legislation 10
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1 Calendar year data
Legislation takes two main forms. Primary legislation consists of Acts of Parliament. Secondary, or delegated, legislation is generally made by Ministers under powers granted by Acts of Parliament. Most delegated legislation is in the form of Statutory Instruments. The charts below show, for the period from 1950 to date, the number of Public Acts which have received Royal Assent and the number of Statutory Instruments (SIs) made by UK Government departments and other UK authorities and registered by the Statutory Instruments Registrar. Since 1999, the Scottish Parliament has been able to pass Acts; these are also shown in the charts, as are Scottish Statutory Instruments made by the Scottish Administration since 1999. SIs made by the National Assembly for Wales since 1999 are included in the UK totals as they are numbered in the same series.1
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
Acts passed 1950 to 2014
Scottish Acts
United Kingdom Acts
There has been something of a downward trend in the number of Acts passed over the last 30 to 40 years, but the number of Statutory Instruments has steadily increased. Statutory Instruments vary enormously in their scope from substantial pieces of legislation to considerable numbers of orders temporarily restricting traffic on particular local roads.
1 But not printed in the same volumes.
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3
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500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
3,500
4,000
4,500
5,000
1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
Statutory Instruments1950 to 2014
Scottish SIs
United Kingdom SIs
Tables 1a and 1b (overleaf) give the data underpinning these charts. Consolidation and Tax Law Rewrite Acts are shown separately as these are, in effect, not new laws. The 1998 Scotland Act, Government of Wales Act and Northern Ireland Act gave differing degrees of legislative power to the three devolved legislatures and their Executives. The Scottish Parliament has had the most extensive and consistent legislative powers of the three, and Table 1b includes the numbers of Scottish Acts passed and Scottish Statutory Instruments made since 1999. Under the 1998 Government of Wales Act, the Assembly was able only to make delegated legislation under Westminster Acts; the numbers of SIs so made are included in the UK figures shown in Table 1b. From May 2007, the Assemblys legislative powers were enlarged to enable it to make Measures which, in effect, could do anything that could be done by an Act of Parliament in specified fields. The numbers of these Measures made are shown separately in Table 1b. Since May 2011, the National Assemblys powers have been enlarged again, and it can now make Assembly Acts in effect primary legislation. Twelve such Acts have been passed since 2012. The legislative competence of the Northern Ireland Assembly was defined in terms of transferred, reserved, and excepted matters. Excepted matters can be legislated only by the UK Parliament or Ministers while reserved matters can be transferred by an Order in Council. Everything else was a transferred matter on which the Assembly can legislate. However, the Assembly was suspended on several occasions between 2000 and 2007, including from October 2002 to May 2007, during which periods the law was made at Westminster, mostly in the form of Orders in Council. Table 2 gives data for recent years.
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Table 1a
Number of Public General Acts and Statutory Instruments 1950 to 1989
Northern Ireland Acts and Statutory Rules are not included
UK
Acts of which:
Tax Law non- UK
Consolidation Rewrite Consolidation Statutory
Acts Acts Acts Instruments (a)
1950 50 11 39 2,144
1951 64 4 60 2,335
1952 64 6 58 2,312
1953 56 5 51 1,937
1954 66 4 62 1,764
1955 49 1 48 2,007
1956 59 5 54 2,122
1957 62 8 54 2,250
1958 77 12 65 2,280
1959 73 9 64 2,342
1960 66 5 61 2,495
1961 65 3 62 2,514
1962 60 4 56 2,877
1963 59 5 54 2,157
1964 98 4 94 2,102
1965 83 14 69 2,201
1966 52 4 48 1,641
1967 91 13 78 1,976
1968 77 10 67 2,079
1969 65 4 61 1,902
1970 58 3 55 2,044
1971 81 10 71 2,178
1972 80 8 72 2,077
1973 69 4 65 2,236
1974 58 6 52 2,227
1975 83 16 67 2,251
1976 86 11 75 2,248
1977 53 5 48 2,202
1978 59 9 50 1,977
1979 60 16 44 1,770
1980 68 13 55 2,051
1981 72 12 60 1,892
1982 57 7 50 1,900
1983 60 8 52 1,965
1984 62 11 51 2,072
1985 76 11 65 2,080
1986 68 4 64 2,344
1987 57 1 56 2,278
1988 55 6 49 2,311
1989 46 3 43 2,503
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Table 1b
Number of Public General Acts and Statutory Instruments 1990 to 2014
Northern Ireland Acts and Statutory Rules are not included
UK
Acts of which:
Tax Law non- UK
Consolidation Rewrite Consolidation Statutory
Acts Acts Acts Instruments (a)
1990 46 4 42 2,667
1991 69 6 63 2,953
1992 61 10 51 3,359
1993 52 9 43 3,276
1994 41 3 38 3,334
1995 54 6 48 3,345
1996 63 6 57 3,291
1997 69 7 62 Scottish 3,114 Scottish
1998 49 2 47 Acts (d) 3,323 SIs
1999 35 35 1 3,501 203
2000 45 1 44 12 3,433 453
2001 25 1 24 15 4,150 494
2002 44 1 43 17 3,279 570
2003 45 1 44 19 3,367 623
2004 38 38 12 3,459 565
2005 24 1 23 16 3,602 663
2006 55 5 50 17 3,515 616
2007 31 1 30 19 3,688 584
2008 33 33 7 3,371 441 2
2009 27 1 1 25 12 3,468 455 5
2010 41 2 39 18 3,117 471 8
2011 25 1 24 16 3,136 458 7
2012 23 23 11 3,329 360 2
2013 33 33 14 3,314 366 7
2014 (b) 4 4 6 738 73 3
(a) Total number of SIs numbered in the UK series. A small number of these each year are not used because the relevant SI
is cancelled - between two and five per annum in recent years.
(b) To 19 March
(c) Measures were made between 2007 and 2011 after which the assembly gained the power to pass acts following a referendum held in 2011.
No Measures could be passed as of May 2011.
(d) One Scottish Act - the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 2003 - has been a Consolidation Act.
Excludes Northern Ireland Acts and statutory rules
Sources: House of Commons Library
www.legislation.gov.uk
Measures/Acts of the
National Assembly for
Wales (c)
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Table 2
Northern Ireland legislation 2007 to 2014
Orders in
Acts Number (a) Pages (b) Council
2007 3 509 3,554 11
2008 13 511 2,749 2
2009 9 433 3,171 2
2010 16 436 2,204 0
2011 29 442 1,792 0
2012 5 462 .. 0
2013 10 308 .. 0
2014 (c) 2 80 .. 0
(a) Total number of Statutory Rules numbered in the Northern Ireland series.
(b) Local, revoked and temporary Rules are not printed and therefore not included here.
Not yet available from 2012 onwards
(c) To 19 March
Sources: www.legislation.gov.uk and printed volumes of NI legislation
Statutory Rules
2 Pages of legislation
An alternative measure of the volume of legislation passed by Parliament is the number of pages of legislation. The following chart shows the number of pages of Acts and Statutory Instruments in the published Stationery Office volumes. Considerable numbers of Statutory Instruments are not printed in these volumes (see footnote to Table 3). The data are for calendar years.
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2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000
14,000
16,000
18,000
1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
Pages of Acts and Statutory Instruments1950 to 2012 (selected years)
Statutory Instruments
Acts
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Table 3
Pages of Acts and Statutory Instruments (selected years) 1911 to 2012UK legislation only - separate Scottish, Welsh and NI legislation is not covered
Public and General
Acts Statutory Instruments
1911 430 330
1921 220 1,080
1931 280 1,050
1940 370 1,970
1950 720 2,970
1955 540 2,340
1960 850 3,020
1965 1,340 4,730
1970 1,110 4,880
1975 2,060 6,210
1980 2,110 5,440
1985 2,380 4,760
1990 2,390 6,550
1991 2,250 7,626
1992 2,678 8,964
1993 2,645 7,944
1994 2,335 10,143
1995 3,001 9,688
1996 3,150 10,233
1997 2,060 8,599
1998 2,469 7,403
1999 2,096 10,693
2000 3,865 8,712
2001 1,594 10,760
2002 2,868 9,109
2003 4,030 9,378
2004 3,470 9,574
2005 2,868 12,933
2006 4,911 11,440
2007 3,186 12,172
2008 3,204 10,812
2009 3,384 11,888
2010 2,722 ..
2011 2,630 ..
2012 2,761 ..
Notes:
The figures for Statutory Instruments relate to the number of pages in the Stationery Office bound set - this
excludes some local and unpublished Instruments and, from 2000, those made by the Welsh ministers.
The figures do not include Northern Ireland (Stormont) Acts, Orders in Council or Statutory Rules.
Pre-1987 figures are adjusted to current page sizes.
Sources: Annual volumes of Acts and SIs published by TSO
The data underpinning this chart are in Table 3. Figures for Public and General Acts are available up to 2012 and for Statutory Instruments up to 2009.
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3 Sessional data 1997-98 to 2012-13
3.1 Bills & Acts
Some statistics are also available for Parliamentary sessions, which vary in length. The latest available figures are for the 2012-13 session. Table 4 gives figures from a House of Commons perspective, that is it covers Bills that started in the House of Commons or were brought to the Commons having started in the House of Lords.
Table 4
Public Bills by session, 1997-98 to 2012-13
Sitting Bills of which, Bills receiving
days introduced (a) Government Bills Royal Assent
1997-98 7 May 97-19 Nov 98 241 202 53 62
1998-99 24 Nov 98-11 Nov 99 149 135 31 35
1999-00 17 Nov 99-30 Nov 00 170 144 40 45
2000-01 6 Dec 00-14 May 01 83 89 26 21
2001-02 13 Jun 01-7 Nov 02 201 162 39 47
2002-03 13 Nov 02-20 Nov 03 162 138 36 46
2003-04 26 Nov 03-18 Nov 04 157 131 36 38
2004-05 23 Nov 04-7 Apr 05 65 88 32 21
2005-06 11 May 05-8 Nov 06 208 179 58 56
2006-07 15 Nov 06-30 Oct 07 146 131 34 33
2007-08 6 Nov 07-26 Nov 08 165 138 32 33
2008-09 3 Dec 08-12 Nov 09 136 138 26 27
2009-10 18 Nov 09-12 Apr 10 60 92 23 30
2010-12 25 May 10-1 May 12 296 277 46 49
2012-13 9 May 12-23 April 13 143 137 34 38
(a) Bills that started in the Commons or were brought from the Lords.
Sources: House of Commons Sessional Returns and Sessional Information Digest
Bills fall into two main types: Government Bills and Private Members (back-bench) Bills. Almost all Government Bills are debated and subsequently become law (having passed through both Houses of Parliament); generally these receive Royal Assent in the same session in which they are introduced, but in some cases bills can be carried forward to the next session. Bills, including Government Bills, may be lost at the end of a session, especially when there is a General Election. Many Private Members Bills are introduced but are not discussed at all and, of those that are allocated time for debate, relatively few are passed. In the 2012-13 session, for example, 34 Government Bills were dealt with by the House of Commons, 27 of which started in that House and 7 started in the House of Lords. 28 of these became law and five were carried forward to the next session. Of the 141 Private
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Members Bills that either started in the House of Commons or were brought to the Commons from the House of Lords, ten became law. Private Bills are a separate category of legislation. They are proposals to give specific powers over and above the general law, usually to corporate bodies. The numbers introduced into the House of Commons or brought from the House of Lords, and the numbers becoming law, were as follows.
Table 5
Private Bills by session, 1997-98 to 2012-13
Sitting Bills Bills receiving
days introduced (a) Royal Assent
1997-98 7 May 97-19 Nov 98 241 17 9
1998-99 24 Nov 98-11 Nov 99 149 9 4
1999-00 17 Nov 99-30 Nov 00 170 12 7
2000-01 6 Dec 00-14 May 01 83 7 5
2001-02 13 Jun 01-7 Nov 02 201 9 7
2002-03 13 Nov 02-20 Nov 03 162 7 5
2003-04 26 Nov 03-18 Nov 04 157 6 6
2004-05 23 Nov 04-7 Apr 05 65 6 0
2005-06 11 May 05-8 Nov 06 208 5 4
2006-07 15 Nov 06-30 Oct 07 146 6 3
2007-08 6 Nov 07-26 Nov 08 165 12 3
2008-09 3 Dec 08-12 Nov 09 136 7 1
2009-10 18 Nov 09-12 Apr 10 60 10 3
2010-12 25 May 10-1 May 12 296 10 4
2012-13 9 May 12-23 April 13 143 103 10
(a) Introduced into the House of Commons or brought from the House of Lords;
includes suspended or revived Bills (those carried over from one session to the next)
Sources: House of Commons Sessional Returns and Sessional Information Digest
3.2 Delegated legislation Statutory Instruments
The extent of parliamentary involvement in delegated legislation, most of which is carried out using Statutory Instruments, varies; it depends on the terms of the parent Act. Many SIs (for example, local instruments which have only to be formally signed off by a Minister and published to become law) receive no parliamentary scrutiny. Others are laid before parliament and are subject to the scrutiny of a (two-House) Joint Committee on Statutory
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Instruments2 to determine whether they are within the powers given to ministers under their parent Act and whether they are properly drafted. Most SIs are, in practice, not subsequently debated and, of those that are, the majority are discussed not on the floor of the House of Commons but in a committee,3 after which they are simply reported to the House.
Table 6
Sitting Laid before Considered in Considered in
days House House Committee
1997-98 7 May 97-19 Nov 98 241 1,856 34 215
1998-99 24 Nov 98-11 Nov 99 149 1,479 22 178
1999-00 17 Nov 99-30 Nov 00 170 1,456 21 175
2000-01 6 Dec 00-14 May 01 83 868 15 122
2001-02 13 Jun 01-7 Nov 02 201 1,788 15 258
2002-03 13 Nov 02-20 Nov 03 162 1,474 13 244
2003-04 26 Nov 03-18 Nov 04 157 1,281 9 187
2004-05 23 Nov 04-7 Apr 05 65 793 6 118
2005-06 11 May 05-8 Nov 06 208 1,885 19 273
2006-07 15 Nov 06-30 Oct 07 146 1,361 12 202
2007-08 6 Nov 07-26 Nov 08 165 1,319 17 212
2008-09 3 Dec 08-12 Nov 09 136 1,302 12 231
2009-10 18 Nov 09-12 Apr 10 60 823 12 160
2010-12 25 May 10-1 May 12 296 1,809 22 336
2012-13 9 May 12-23 April 13 143 994 11 208
Sources: House of Commons Sessional Returns and Sessional Information Digest
Statutory Instruments laid before the House of Commons by session,
1997-98 to 2012-13
3.3 Time spent debating legislation
Table 7 shows the length of time spent debating legislation in the House of Commons Chamber in each session since 1997-98, both in aggregate and as averages per sitting day. The table does not include debates in Public Bill and other Committees the bulk of the detailed debate on most Bills takes place in committee and the figures can, therefore, be affected by the Committee stages of some Bills (usually Bills of major constitutional importance or those which the Government wishes to pass very quickly) being taken on the floor of the House.4 There has been a general downward trend over the period covered in 2 Instruments which are required to be laid only before the Commons generally those relating to taxation are
considered by the Commons Select Committee on SIs. 3 Generally the Delegated Legislation Committee, but can be the Scottish or NI Grand Committee. 4 See Bills whose Commons committee stage has been taken in committee of the whole House Parliamentary
Information List SN/PC/5435
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Table 7
Time spent debating legislation in House of Commons Chamber
Private
Government Members' Private Statutory As % of
Bills Bills (a) Bills Instruments Total all sitting time
Hours:minutes
1997-98 780:57 64:19 6:33 43:05 894:54 42.3%
1998-99 396:38 60:36 8:24 37:02 502:40 36.5%
1999-00 560:00 70:13 8:58 32:28 671:39 46.6%
2000-01 242:35 38:50 7:39 26:22 315:26 45.7%
2001-02 475:55 63:19 12:31 24:58 576:43 44.5%
2002-03 415:02 63:02 6:25 18:12 502:41 39.1%
2003-04 388:24 62:58 0:00 14:35 465:57 38.3%
2004-05 198:49 19:26 0:00 9:30 227:45 42.5%
2005-06 631:27 55:42 0:00 18:09 705:18 44.9%
2006-07 298:11 61:17 2:32 18:01 380:01 34.0%
2007-08 373:36 61:57 7:55 27:38 471:06 36.1%
2008-09 257:50 61:11 3:56 19:37 342:34 32.5%
2009-10 156:00 24:24 7:32 16:31 204:27 37.8%
2010-12 652:14 75:40 16:27 30:18 774:39 33.0%
2012-13 285:42 61:18 5:10 11:01 363:11 32.0%
Average minutes per sitting day
1997-98 194 16 2 11 223
1998-99 160 24 3 15 202
1999-00 198 25 3 11 237
2000-01 175 28 6 19 228
2001-02 142 19 4 7 172
2002-03 154 23 2 7 186
2003-04 148 24 0 6 178
2004-05 184 18 0 9 210
2005-06 182 16 0 5 203
2006-07 123 25 1 7 156
2007-08 136 23 3 10 171
2008-09 114 27 2 9 151
2009-10 156 24 8 17 204
2010-12 132 15 3 6 157
2012-13 120 26 2 5 153
(a) Not including motions for the introduction of Ten Minute Rule Bills.
Sources: House of Commons Sessional Information Digest and Sessional Diaries
both the time spent debating legislation and in the percentage of the Houses sitting time taken up with legislative debate.