Meeting of the Parliament 30 September 2025
I am grateful for the opportunity to make this announcement on behalf of the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee regarding our recent report on the Scottish statutory instruments laid between mid-May and the start of this month.
It is an unprecedented step for our committee to seek to highlight one of our reports, which looks at the quality of the instruments. However, we felt that the issues that we have recently identified merited being raised in the chamber, which we hope will spur an improvement by the Scottish Government.
Our role is unique. We consider all subordinate legislation that is laid before the Parliament. As the report lays out, there was a marked decline in the quality of instruments that were laid before the Parliament in the first quarter of this parliamentary year. That change is identifiable in three main ways. First, and perhaps most prominently, the number of instruments that have been reported on under the reporting grounds that are laid out in rule 10.3.1 of the standing orders has increased to 28 per cent. To contextualise the figure, I note that the next highest percentage of instruments drawn to the attention of the Parliament in a quarter of this parliamentary session was 14 per cent, which is half the figure from the most recent report. More typically, the percentage figure is between 5 and 10 per cent.
Secondly, the number of reporting grounds engaged by individual instruments has also increased. Although an instrument may typically be reported on one or, occasionally, two grounds, we have had multiple instances of several reports being made for one instrument. There were 30 reports for just six instruments that were laid in this quarter, including one SSI that had eight reportable issues. Those errors have been identified across several policy areas, so this is of note to everyone in the chamber.
Finally, a number of the instruments that we have drawn to the attention of the Parliament this quarter have engaged serious reporting grounds, with four issues reported on the ground of the drafting appearing to be defective.
The Scottish Government has committed to correcting many of the errors, which is to be welcomed. However, the fact that errors are happening so often now is a cause of concern for the committee.
The Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee encourages the Scottish Government to work to improve the overall quality of instruments that are laid before the Parliament. I hope that for the rest of the parliamentary session and into the next one, the number of issues that are reported will fall back.