Proposed Negative instrument
Aviation Statistics Regulations 2023
1.This is the first Proposed Negative instrument to be laid under the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 (REUL Act). The policy involves making administrative changes to the collection of aviation statistics without adding any further requirements and we agree that the negative procedure seems appropriate to this content.
Titling of instruments under the REUL Act
2.To improve transparency, we have in the past recommended that instruments with a special procedure or significance should be clearly identified in their title: for example, that instruments made under the Public Bodies Act 2011 included the name of the Act in the title, or that instruments dealing with the pandemic included the term “Coronavirus”.
3.In our commentary on the Government’s response to our Interim Report on the Work of the Committee in Session 2022-23,1 we have recommended that instruments made under the REUL Act should be identified as such by their title.
4.It is disappointing that this first instrument made under the proposed negative procedure of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 is not identified in this way, particularly when similar instruments made under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 did comply consistently.2 We expect to see the convention applied in future instruments.
1 See para 7, 50th Report (Session 2022-23, HL Paper 245).
2 SLSC, ‘Proposed negatives recommended for upgrade’: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/255/secondary-legislation-scrutiny-committee/content/111534/proposed-negatives-recommended-for-upgrade/.