Statutory Instruments Reference Committee

31.6The Statutory Instruments Reference Committee is nominated by the Lord Speaker and the Speaker. It consists of the Senior Deputy Speaker (formerly referred to as the Lord Chairman of Committees), the Chairman of Ways and Means, and six senior officers of both Houses. The Reference Committee (which rarely meets) may override certificates by Ministers for exemption from printing and sale of instruments (except confidential instruments). It may also consider such matters as the numbering, classification, printing and publication of statutory instruments, and whether an instrument made under an Act passed before 1948 is to be regarded as a statutory instrument.1

Footnotes

  1. 1. See Statutory Instruments Act 1946 (c 36), s 8(1); Statutory Instruments Regulations 1947 (SI 1948/1), reg 11; Statutory Instrument Practice (5th edn, November 2017) paras 1.5.5, 2.15.11, 5.6; and the Reports of the Statutory Instruments Reference Committee, No 1, 1 January 1948 to 31 December 1950 (HMSO, 1951). The Lord Speaker and the Speaker of the House of Commons lay the Reports of the Reference Committee on the Table of their respective Houses, eg LJ (1984–85) 112; CJ (1995–96) 7–8; ibid (2001–02) 245.