Scottish statutory instrument

A Scottish statutory instrument ( gd, Ionnsramaid Reachdail na h-Alba; SSI) is subordinate legislation made by the Scottish Ministers or a regulatory authority in exercise of powers delegated by an Act of the Scottish Parliament. SSIs are the main form of subordinate legislation in Scotland, being used by default to exercise powers delegated to the Scottish Ministers, the Lord Advocate, the High Court of Justiciary, the Court of Session, and the Queen-in-Council.

The Interpretation and Legislative Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 defines what a Scottish statutory instrument is. Before this Act, SSIs were governed by the Statutory Instruments Act 1946, which continues to govern UK statutory instruments.

SSIs, and the power to enable the creation of subordinate legislation in general, are not mentioned in the original text of the Scotland Act 1998, which devolved powers to the Scottish Parliament. Rather, this power is implied by the statement that Acts of the Scottish Parliament are law to the extent that they are not "outside the legislative competence of the Parliament," without any subsequent reservation of the power to make subordinate legislation.

Before Scottish devolution, subordinate legislation applying only to Scotland was published as a subseries of the larger UK statutory instrument (SI) series. This subseries is now used for SIs which deal with reserved matters in relation to Scotland.

Purpose

An SSI is made, with some exceptions, by a body exercising executive governmental functions – that is, a body responsible for putting the law into effect ("executing" the law) rather than a body responsible for defining the law (the legislature) or a body responsible for interpreting the law (the judicature). As a result, an SSI will provide specific details on how an Act should be put into effect and may amend existing Acts or SSIs to reflect that the law has changed. In other cases, an SSI may repeal parts of the law which had before been impliedly repealed.

For example, section 15 of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 allows the Scottish Ministers to make regulations setting out how charities refer to themselves in documents, and the Charities References in Documents (Scotland) Regulations 2007 sets out in regulation 2 how a charity must refer to itself, and in regulation 4 on which documents a charity must make such references.

In other cases, an SSI may be used to bring into force parts of the law through so-called "commencement orders." In these cases, sections of Acts may have no legal force until brought into force, which may allow time for accommodating preparations to be made. One example of a commencement order is the ''Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 (Commencement) Regulations 2016'', which brought almost the entirety of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 into force.

Another example, although not involving SSIs, is the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, which applies to Scotland and makes provisions relating to ensuring safety in the workplace. This Act covers a wide remit, and so UK SIs have been issued under the same sections to cover different industries. Specifically, some sections of this Act which allow making SIs were used to make both the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 and the Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005 even though those regulations are not related.

Procedure

Enabling

An SSI may only be made where an Act of the Scottish Parliament or Act of the UK Parliament gives that power. Such an Act is known variously as an ''enabling'' or ''parent Act'', and sets out the scope of the power to make SSIs, and the associated procedure for exercising that power. An SSI may only make provision within the scope of its enabling power, and any provision outside that scope is invalid.

Making

An SSI is "made" when it is signed by a person or body who has the power to make that SSI – typically the Scottish Ministers. This terminology appears to be inherited from the UK Parliament, as the Scottish Parliament has not provided official guidance specifically defining the term.

Laying

The "laying" of an SSI is the putting of that SSI before the Scottish Parliament for the Parliament's consideration. The phrase comes from '' laying before the house'', which originally referred to the placing of a (physical) document on the table in the assembly chamber. All SSIs are required to be laid before Parliament in the manner specified by the Parliament's standing orders, although not laying an SSI before Parliament does not invalidate it. The date an SSI is laid is also generally the date from which parliamentary scrutiny may begin.

Scrutiny

Once an SSI is laid before Parliament, it may be scrutinised. Scrutiny is generally performed by the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee (DPLRC), which considers whether the Scottish Ministers are competent in making the SSI and whether the SSI of sufficient quality. That is, the committee considers whether the Ministers have the power to make that SSI under the enabling Act, whether the Scottish Parliament has the power to make law in that area under the Scotland Acts, and whether the provisions of the SSI are clear, consistent, and free of typographical errors.

The DPLRC and other committees report back to Parliament, which applies a varying level of scrutiny depending on the exact procedure for that SSI.

Negative procedure

A ''negative SSI'' is an SSI subject to ''negative procedure''. Such SSIs must be laid before Parliament at least 28 days before they come into force, and may be annulled by Parliament resolution within 40 days of their being laid. If an SSI is annulled after it comes into force, it ceases to have force from the date of annulment.

Affirmative procedure

An ''affirmative SSI'' is subject to ''affirmative procedure''. These SSIs must be approved by resolution of Parliament before they can come into force.

Special parliamentary procedure

Some SSIs are subject to ''special parliamentary procedure''. These are so-called ''special procedure orders'' (SPOs), and differ from SSIs subject to other types of procedure in that notice of SPOs must be posted in the '' Edinburgh Gazette'' (or a local newspaper, if the SPO relates to a particular area) and in that members of the public may object to an SPO.

If an SPO is objected to, it must be laid before the Parliament with its objections and then confirmed by an Act of the Scottish Parliament. If no objections are made, the Parliament may annul the order within 40 days of its being laid. If no objections are made and the Parliament does not annul the SPO, the SPO comes into force at the end of the 40-day period or at a later date if the SPO so specifies.

Other procedures

In addition to the above procedures, which are defined by the Interpretation and Legislative Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, an enabling Act may specify its own procedure for making SSIs. SSIs made under another procedure must be laid before Parliament "as soon as practicable after hey aremade," with some exemptions. As of October 2016, the exempted enactments are:

Examples of these other procedures are ''laid-only procedure'', where an SSI is laid before Parliament but cannot be rejected; and ''super-affirmative procedure'', where a draft SSI must be subject to a formal consultation or other requirement before it can be made.

Commencement

An SSI will not typically have legal force immediately. Rather, it may require parliamentary approval, and may specify a "commencement day" on which it comes into force. For example, the order bringing into force the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 was made on 15 September 2016, laid before Parliament on 21 September 2016, and has a commencement day of 30 November 2016.

Types

Rules, regulations, and orders

While SSIs are separate from UK SIs, they generally appear to follow the same naming convention for rules, regulations, and orders. The Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government have not, however, as of October 2016, published official guidance defining the terms, and so it cannot be known with certainty whether the definitions used for SSIs and SIs are identical.

These definitions were established by the so-called "Donoughmore Committee" of 1932, and recommended in official guidance published by the Her Majesty's Stationery Office. The committee recommended that:

* ''Rules'' should set out procedure – how specific