Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments
Current membership
House of Lords
Lord Colgrain (Conservative)
Lord Haskel (Labour)
Lord Morris of Handsworth (Labour)
Baroness Newlove (Conservative)
Lord Rowe-Beddoe (Crossbench)
Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat)
Lord Stirrup (Crossbench)
House of Commons
Jessica Morden MP (Labour, Newport East) (Chair)
Dr James Davies MP (Conservative, Vale of Clwyd)
Paul Holmes MP (Conservative, Eastleigh)
John Lamont MP (Conservative, Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Sir Robert Syms MP (Conservative, Poole)
Owen Thompson MP (Scottish National Party, Midlothian)
Liz Twist MP (Labour, Blaydon)
Powers
The full constitution and powers of the Committee are set out in House of Commons Standing Order No. 151 and House of Lords Standing Order No. 73, relating to Public Business.
Remit
The Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments (JCSI) is appointed to consider statutory instruments made in exercise of powers granted by Act of Parliament. Instruments not laid before Parliament are included within the Committee’s remit; but local instruments and instruments made by devolved administrations are not considered by JCSI unless they are required to be laid before Parliament.
The role of the JCSI, whose membership is drawn from both Houses of Parliament, is to assess the technical qualities of each instrument that falls within its remit and to decide whether to draw the special attention of each House to any instrument on one or more of the following grounds:
- that it imposes, or sets the amount of, a charge on public revenue or that it requires payment for a licence, consent or service to be made to the Exchequer, a government department or a public or local authority, or sets the amount of the payment;
- that its parent legislation says that it cannot be challenged in the courts;
- that it appears to have retrospective effect without the express authority of the parent legislation;
- that there appears to have been unjustifiable delay in publishing it or laying it before Parliament;
- that there appears to have been unjustifiable delay in sending a notification under the proviso to section 4(1) of the Statutory Instruments Act 1946, where the instrument has come into force before it has been laid;
- that there appears to be doubt about whether there is power to make it or that it appears to make an unusual or unexpected use of the power to make
- that its form or meaning needs to be explained;
- that its drafting appears to be defective;
- any other ground which does not go to its merits or the policy behind it.
The Committee usually meets weekly when Parliament is sitting.
Publications
© Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2019. This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament Licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/copyright.
The reports of the Committee are published by Order of both Houses. All publications of the Committee are on the Internet at www.parliament.uk/jcsi.
Committee staff
The current staff of the Committee are Liz Booth (Committee Assistant), Luanne Middleton (Commons Clerk), Christine Salmon Percival (Lords Clerk). Advisory Counsel: Klara Banaszak, Daniel Greenberg, and Vanessa MacNair (Commons); Nicholas Beach, James Cooper, and Ché Diamond (Lords).
Contacts
All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments, House of Commons, London SW1A OAA. The telephone number for general inquiries is: 020 7219 2026; the Committee’s email address is: jcsi@parliament.uk.
Published: 6 March 2020