Member

The requirement, now to be removed, for secondary legislation was introduced as a result of transposing EU regulations into a UK context at the time of EU exit—so much for reducing red tape as a so-called benefit of Brexit; it has clearly resulted in more red tape rather than less. However, as we have seen today, and as another Member of the Committee mentioned, secondary legislation can be helpful to Parliament as it gives parliamentarians an opportunity to keep themselves informed by scrutinising the issue in detail, hearing from the SLSC and asking Ministers questions, as we are doing today. In future, the onus will be on Parliament to keep itself informed, which will be challenging given the number of issues that cross people’s desks every day. Will the Minister consider whether there is any way in which the FSA could be asked to assist Parliament, such as by laying regular parliamentary Statements about any changes to authorisations every few months? That would help us enormously and avoid us having to do all this.