Question to the Leader of the House:

To ask the Leader of the House, whether she is taking steps to increase opportunities for the scrutiny of statutory instruments by backbenchers.

The Government is fully committed to a strong Parliament that effectively scrutinises legislation. In its response to the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee's report 'Losing Impact: why the Government’s impact assessment system is failing Parliament and the public' (HL Paper 116), the Government agreed that it is important that Parliament has the information it needs and that impact assessments should be published, where possible, when an applicable instrument is laid before Parliament.

Further to that response, the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee’s ‘Interim Report on the Work of the Committee in Session 2022-2023’ (HL Paper 205) sets out the steps the Government is taking on ensuring suitable opportunities for scrutiny by parliamentarians.