Theresa May’s government is trying to sneak through vast swathes of new legislation in the final weeks before Brexit without proper democratic checks, her opponents have warned.
Ministers are pushing hundreds of pieces of secondary legislation — known as statutory instruments — through Parliament in the final weeks before the United Kingdom leaves the European Union on March 29.
Statutory instruments pass through parliamentary committees but do not always require full House of Commons approval. May’s government has around 600 SIs relating to Brexit that it aims to get through Parliament before Brexit day on March 29.
However, just 117 statutory instruments have completed their passage through Parliament at the time of writing, while up to 40% haven’t even been laid before Parliament to begin their journey through Westminster.
To speed up the process and ensure the UK is ready for a potential no-deal Brexit, ministers are using tactics to further limit the extent at which MPs can scrutinise SIs, shadow ministers and senior MPs have told BI.
Statutory instruments are normally used only for technical changes relating to primary legislation. However the sheer scale of the SIs going through parliament and the speed with which they are being passed, has led to fears that more controversial and potentially risky changes are being sneaked through as well.
“We have raised directly with government ministers and at each SI committee the way in which ministers are seeking to drive through delegated legislation that often they themselves do not fully comprehend and whose impacts has not been properly assessed,” Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell told Business Insider.