Forty-Sixth Report of Session 2019-21 Contents

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Appendix 4

S.I. 2021/109

Heavy Commercial Vehicles in Kent (No. 3) (Amendment) Order 2021

1.By a letter dated 17th March 2021 the Committee asked for a memorandum on the following point:

Give further details (in addition to the explanation in the rubric) of the reasons for the delay between the making and laying of this instrument.

2.Although the Order referred to above was signed on 20th January and originally published and laid on 21st January, a subsequent check of the published version revealed that it differed very slightly from the version that had been signed, in that some words introducing an amendment appeared to have been accidentally deleted. The Department believes that this probably occurred, entirely unintentionally, during the electronic process of submitting the order for publication and laying.

3.As soon as the error was noticed, the Department contacted the National Archives and arranged for the incorrect version of the Order to be withdrawn. Arrangements were also made to withdraw the incorrect version that had been laid before parliament. The matter was brought to the attention of the Minister and letters were sent to the Speaker of the House of Commons, copied to the Chair of the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments, and to the Lord Speaker, copied to the Chair of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, on 1st February, explaining what had happened.

4.The corrected version of the Order was then registered and published with a new number and laid before Parliament. Copies of the corrected Order were issued free of charge to known recipients of the original version.

5.Although these steps were taken as quickly as possible once the discrepancy had been identified, the Department accepts that there was a consequential delay between the Order being made and the correct version being laid before Parliament. The Department apologises to the Committee for the error and will endeavour to ensure that similar administrative mistakes do not happen again.

Department for Transport

23 March 2021