Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many statutory instruments from the Department for Communities and Local Government have been laid this calendar year; of those, what percentage corrected errors in a previous instrument (including drafts of affirmative instruments that had to be superseded by correcting drafts); and what steps that Department is taking to reduce the need for correcting instruments.

A table has been placed in the Library of the House, it includes changes made to secondary legislation issued under the previous Administration.

From time to time, we make amendments in response to scrutiny by the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments. We also undertake routine review of previous instruments to see if the drafting needs to be improved to ensure that the policy is properly delivered or minor errors corrected. Wherever possible, revisions are included with other substantive provision to minimise the number of statutory instruments made.

We take our responsibility to ensure the quality of all legislation emanating from the Department seriously and endeavour to keep to a minimum the need for correcting instruments. We have a system in place for appropriate 2^nd and 3^rd lawyer checks by senior lawyers; we provide regular legal awareness training and guidance for policy officials in making statutory instruments and actively engage with interested persons or groups, where possible, to test the quality of the draft legislation. We regularly review these processes to ensure that they continue to be effective and appropriate.

In addition, both the Treasury Solicitor and First Parliamentary Counsel are strongly committed to improving the quality of statutory instrument drafting across the Government Legal Service. In the coming months, the Treasury Solicitor’s Department (which provides legal services to my Department) will be looking at ideas for better training, a more consistent approach to supervision, checking, planning and timetabling of statutory instruments, better sharing of good practice, and the possibility of a specialist statutory instrument drafting “hub”, with experienced senior leadership.