Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will grant access to his Department’s Statutory Instrument reading room to Parliamentarians to enhance pre-laying scrutiny of Statutory Instruments.

The Reading Room was developed based on feedback from stakeholders to give them advanced sight of SIs before they are laid in Parliament. It is an online platform where stakeholders can check the technical aspects of near-final SIs before they are laid before Parliament. It has been designed with a specific audience in mind. Parliamentarians are able to scrutinise these SIs through the usual process. Unlike stakeholders, Parliamentarians have a significant scrutiny timetable and can chose to accept or reject the SIs.