Abortion (Northern Ireland) (No. 2) Regulations 2020

Baroness Scott of Needham Market Excerpts

Monday 15th June 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Scott of Needham Market (LD) [V]]

My Lords, I am a member of the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments. As we received a high volume of correspondence on these regulations—indeed, it has been mentioned in the debate today—I thought it might help the House if I briefly outlined the role of the committee. Our role is to draw the attention of Parliament to statutory instruments on technical grounds, including retrospection, defective drafting and the scope of enabling powers. The merits are strictly not within our scope.

For this order, it is apparent that the strong differences of opinion include on whether it is within the enabling powers. However, the opinion of the committee was that we were unable to report this SI to the House as being outside the scope of enabling powers. This is not to argue that it is within them, but it is to say that these debates need to take place on the Floor of the House to preserve the political independence of the Joint Committee. The merits and the law of this instrument need to be decided by the House in debate, as it is today.