Part 2: General provision about powers under Act
- Part 2 of Schedule 4 makes general provision in respect of the scope and nature of the powers contained in the Act.
- Paragraph 11 provides that powers to make regulations in the Act are exercisable by statutory instrument (where exercised by a Minister of the Crown alone, by a Minister of the Crown acting jointly with a devolved authority, or by a Welsh minister acting alone or jointly with a Minister of the Crown) and by statutory rule (where the powers are exercised by a Northern Ireland department alone). Regulations made by Scottish ministers acting alone will be made by Scottish statutory instrument, as provided for by section 27 of the Interpretation and Legislative Reform (Scotland) Act 2010.
- Paragraph 12 clarifies the scope of the powers in the Act by providing that all the powers in the Act can be used to make different provision for different cases or descriptions of case, in different circumstances, areas or for different purposes and include the power to make supplementary etc provision.
- Paragraph 13 provides that powers in the Act may overlap without that overlap impacting on the scope of each of the powers.
- Paragraph 14 clarifies that powers in the Act relating to the Agreements can be exercised before the Agreements are ratified so that the regulations can come into force on or after the day the Agreements are ratified. This also includes any modifications of those agreements that require ratification.
- Paragraph 15 clarifies that the power for Ministers to commence certain parts of the Act, as provided for by section 42(7), includes the power to specify the time of day these parts of the Act come into force.
- Paragraph 16 sets out that regulations brought forward under the powers in this Act are never to be treated as hybrid instruments. Some statutory instruments which need to be approved by both Houses (affirmative instruments) are ruled to be hybrid instruments because they affect some members of a group (be it individuals or bodies) in a manner different from others in the same group.
- Paragraph 17 makes provision for the applicable procedure when instruments containing regulations made under this Act are combined.
