Question to the Leader of the House:

To ask the Leader of the House, how many and which Government bills introduced in the last Parliament affected predominantly (a) England and (b) England and Wales.

The following Government bills as introduced over the five years of the last Parliament affected predominantly England or England and Wales.

The proposals that were announced by my Right Honourable Friend, the Leader of the House of Commons, on 2 July on English votes for English laws provide for certification of bills and clauses or schedules by the Speaker of the House of Commons based on the devolution settlement.

This list is based on an assessment of the effects of provisions rather than the territorial extent of a bill, which concerns the legal jurisdiction to which the bill extends, which may be wider than application. For example, since England and Wales form a single legal jurisdiction a bill might extend to England and Wales but only affect England. The list does not consider whether the subject-matter of any individual clauses or schedules of a bill would be within the legislative competence of the Northern Ireland Assembly or Scotland Parliament or, if appropriate, the National Assembly for Wales. As such this list is not a guide to the likely certification of these bills had the proposed certification process applied to them.

Some of the bills listed contain provisions which extend and/or apply to Northern Ireland, Scotland or, as appropriate, Wales. Under the proposals announced on 2 July, bills, clauses and schedules within them would be certified, and so any provisions which apply to Scotland and/or Northern Ireland would not have been subject to the new process.

The list refers to bills at the time of introduction and does not take into account amendments made during their passage. If the territorial extent and/or application of a bill is to be amended in such a way that would affect devolved matters, the consent of the relevant devolved legislature(s) would be sought. This is in accordance with the convention that the UK Parliament will not normally legislate with regard to devolved matters except with the agreement of the devolved legislature.

a) On introduction, applied predominantly to England

Academies Bill (which became the Academies Act 2010)

Local Government Bill (which became the Local Government Act 2010)

b) On introduction, applied predominantly to England and Wales

Charities Bill (which became the Charities Act 2011)

Education Bill (which became the Education Act 2011)

Police (Detention and Bail) Bill (which became the Police (Detention and Bail) Act 2011)

Local Government Finance Bill (which became the Local Government Finance Act 2012)

Sunday Trading (London and Olympic Games and Paralympic Games) Bill (which became the Sunday Trading (London and Olympic Games and Paralympic Games) Act 2012)

Water Industry (Financial Assistance) Bill (which became the Water Industry (Financial Assistance) Act 2012)

Defamation Bill (which became the Defamation Act 2013)

Local Audit and Accountability Bill (which became the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014)

Offender Rehabilitation Bill (which became the Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014)

Modern Slavery Bill (which became the Modern Slavery Act 2015)

Social Action, Responsibility and Heroism Bill (which became the Social Action, Responsibility and Heroism Act 2015)

The corrected totals in the Answer to Question 4228 are: a) two predominantly England-only bills; b) 11 predominantly England and Wales-only bills.

I would also like to correct my answer to the Hon Member for Arfon (Hywel Williams) of 2 July 2015, Official Report, col 1656. The number of bills in the previous Parliament that are considered to have been predominantly England-only upon introduction is two.