The Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee (formerly the Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee) is a select committee of the
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
that refers secondary legislation, such as
statutory instruments, to the House that it considers interesting or important. This is unlike the
Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments
The Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments is a joint committee of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to scrutinise all statutory instruments made in exercise of powers granted by Acts of Parliament. Instruments ...
and Commons
Select Committee on Statutory Instruments, which only scrutinise instruments for legal and drafting defects. The specific criteria used by the committee are whether the legislation—
# is politically or legally important or gives rise to issues of public policy likely to be of interest to the House
# may be inappropriate in view of changed circumstances since the enactment of the parent Act
# may inappropriately implement European Union legislation
# may imperfectly achieve its policy objectives.
The committee adopted its current name on 15 May 2012 principally because of the addition of Public Bodies Orders under the
Public Bodies Act 2011
The Public Bodies Act 2011c 24 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for t ...
.
Due to the number of additional instruments specifically related to
Brexit
Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU).
Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...
, the committee expanded into two sub-committees from October 2018 until April 2019.
Membership
As of March 2025, the membership of the committee is:
References
External links
The records of the Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee are held by the UK Parliamentary Archives
{{UKParliamentCommittees
Committees of the House of Lords
Statutory instruments of the United Kingdom