Question

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many statutory instruments from the Department of Energy and Climate Change have been laid this calendar year; of those, what percentage corrected errors in a previous instrument (including drafts of affirmative instruments that had to be superseded by correcting drafts); and what steps that Department is taking to reduce the need for correcting instruments.

Since 1 January 2014, the Department of Energy and Climate Change has laid 31 statutory instruments. Two draft affirmative procedure instruments were re-laid in draft in order to correct errors, being 6% of all instruments laid. In the course of making two other instruments, the Department took the opportunity to correct errors in previous instruments; such correction was not the main purpose of the instrument which was made. The Department has endeavoured to prevent errors occurring in statutory instruments and it regrets that errors have occurred. The Department is committed to continuous improvement of the quality of drafting, in particular by means of training and quality assurance procedures and seeks to learn the lessons when errors do occur.