The Work of the National Insurance Advisory Committee
| Published date | 01 June 1952 |
| Author | Miss Enid Harrison |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1952.tb02791.x |
| Date | 01 June 1952 |
The
Work
of
the National Insurance
Advisory
Committee
By
Mss
ENID
HARRISON
Miss
Harrison
is
a Research. Assistant
in
the Department
of
Govmcnt,
University
of
Manch~er.
R.
A. H.
HANSON,
in
two
M
articles
in
PUBLIC
ADMINIS-
TRATION,’
has drawn attention to the
lack of Parliamentary control’ over
the policy contained
in
statutory
instruments. The Select Committee
on
Statutory Instruments, he points
out, “can deal with the form and
constitutional propriety of a statutory
instrument, but
it
has
no
power to
consider and report
on
the adminis-
trative policy that that instrument
embodies-its ‘merits’
. .
.”
Mr.
Hanson advocates the widening of
the powers of the Select Committee
to permit
it
to consider the
“
merits
”
of the instruments.
Another method
of
controlling the
“
merits
”
of statutory instruments
is
the scrutiny of
the
instruments
in
draft,
before they are laid before
Parliament, by a statutory committee
set up by the responsible Minister.
The Ministry of National Insurance
uses the National Insurance Advisory
Committee for
this
purpose, and a
number of other departments make
limited use of similar bodies.z The
experience
of
the Ministry of National
Insurance is of particular interest,
because the Minister submits nearly
all his regulations to the scrutiny of
the Committee.
1Mr.
J.
A.
G. Grif6th has outlined
the Ministry’s procedure in the
Modern Law Review.s The present
article examines the work of the
Committee during the first three
years of its existence and tries to
show the merits and demerits of
this
procedure as a method of
controlling the
“
merits
”
of statutory
instruments.
origins
The National Insurance Advisory
Committee had a forerunner
in
the
Unemployment Insurance Statutory
Committee, set up by the Minister
of Labour under the Unemployment
Insurance
Act
of
1934.
This com-
mittee, however, was primarily a
means of facilitating the introduction
of economies into the Unemployment
Insurance scheme; by withdrawing
from the political arena questions
which affected the finances of the
scheme.
As
a
secondary
function
the Committee scrutinised draft regu-
lations and acted
as
a check
on
subordinate legislation. But its
activities under
this
second heading
were not extensive, for the more
important questions
of
policy were
dealt with under the first heading
and the scrutiny of
draft
regulations
was often
no
more than a formality.
Moreover, the Committee dealt with
regulations affecting Unemployment
Insurance only, and
not
with those
affecting Health In~urance.~
l“The Select Committee
on
Statutory Instruments,” Winter, 1949, issue, and
“The Select Committee
on
Statutory Instruments-A Further Note,” Autumn, 1951, issue.
*See
J.
A.
G.
Griffith,
“
Delegated Legislation-Some Recent Developments
”
and
“The Place
of
Parliament
in
the Legislative Process,” Modem Law Review, 1949 and 1951.
=Bid.
%See the
Final
Report of the Royal Commission
on
Unemployment Insurance,
Cmd. 4185, 1932, paras. 287-300, Hansard, H.C. Debates, vol. 283, cols. 1081-3,
30th
November, 1933, and
Sir
William Beveridge,
“
The Unemployment Insurance Statutory
Committee,” published
by
the Hereford Times Ltd.
for
the London School of Economics
and
Political
Science.
149
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