117.—(1) The Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994 is amended as follows.
(2) In section 1(5)(a) (power to remove or reduce certain statutory burdens on business, individuals etc.), after “1975” there is inserted “and includes the Scottish Ministers where the functions of a Minister of the Crown under this section have transferred to them under section 53 of the Scotland Act 1998”.
(3) In section 3(3) (preliminary consultation), after “Parliament” there is inserted “or, where the Minister is a Scottish Minister, before the Scottish Parliament”.
(4) In section 4 (parliamentary consideration of proposals)–
(a)any reference to Parliament, or to either House of Parliament or to any committee of either House of Parliament shall include a reference to the Scottish Parliament or, as the case may be, a committee of the Scottish Parliament; and
(b)in subsection (3) at the end there is inserted “and, in relation to the Scottish Parliament, no account shall be taken of any time during which the Parliament is dissolved or is in recess for more than 4 days.”.