HANSARD SOCIETY 2024 The Statutory Instrument Tracker User Guide

HANSARD SOCIETY 2024 The Statutory Instrument Tracker

Product Information

Specifications

• Product Name: The Statutory Instrument Tracker
• Edition: Second Edition, January 2024

Product Usage Instructions

Overview of the SI Tracker
The Statutory Instrument Tracker provides a comprehensive tool for tracking Statutory Instruments and consultations related to UKParliament activities.

Key Features

• Dashboard: View and manage SIs and consultations on your watch list.
• Events Calendar: Monthly view of all SI-related business in the UK Parliament.
• All Consultations: List of live SI-related consultations and archives since 2018.
• Notifications: Receive alerts for SIs or consultations on your watch list.

The Status of a Statutory Instrument
Track the status of Statutory Instruments being considered by the UK Parliament.

New, Live, and Concluded Statutory Instruments

• New Statutory Instruments: Green icon for new SIs under parliamentary scrutiny within the past seven days.
• Live Statutory Instruments: Amber icon for SIs laid before Parliament more than seven days ago but still under scrutiny.
• Concluded Statutory Instruments: Red icon for SIs that have completed parliamentary scrutiny and archived.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

• Q: How often is the product updated?
  A: The product is regularly updated to reflect the latest Statutory Instrument information and consultation details.

• Q: Can I customize notifications for specific SIs or consultations?
  A: Yes, you can set up customized notifications for individual SIs or consultations that you are interested in tracking.

The Statutory Instrument Tracker
User Guide
Second Edition: January 2024

Overview of the SI Tracker

Key features
On the left of the screen is the side-bar, which contains links to all the main functions of the Tracker.
Dashboard: This displays Statutory Instruments (SIs) and consultations that you have added to your watch list. You can use the dashboard to see upcoming activity for any SIs and consultations you are interested in.
All Statutory Instruments: This is the main page of the SI Tracker. It contains a list of all SIs currently being considered by Parliament. You can use this page to:

• Search for SIs by policy area.
• Use the advanced search function.
• Access the SI Tracker archive of SIs that have concluded their parliamentary scrutiny.
• Access entries for all SIs laid before Parliament since the 2017-18 Session, where you can find relevant dates, debate transcripts, parliamentary reports, parent Acts, and the purpose of the SI.
• Events Calendar : This contains a monthly view of all SI-related business in the UK Parliament, including upcoming debates, scrutiny end dates, and approval motions.
• All consultations: This contains a list of live SI-related consultations being held by the Government, as well as an archive of SI-related consultations since 2018. You can find more details about specific consultations via this page, including relevant dates.
• Notifications: Through this feature, you will receive notifications for any SIs or consultations you have added to your watch list.
• Resources: Resources to help you navigate the SI Tracker and SI scrutiny process.
  • Procedural flowcharts: Diagrams showing the parliamentary scrutiny processes for negative and affirmative SI.
  • Devil is in the Detail: A 2014 report produced by the Hansard Society outlining what delegated legislation is and some of the problems with the process.
  • Glossary & key: Definitions of key terms and icons used on the SI Tracker.
  • Contact: An email address if you have any procedural questions about the SI process or any problems using the SI Tracker.

The status of a Statutory Instrument

Clicking on the ‘All Statutory Instruments’ button on the left-hand menu bar will take you to the main page of the SI Tracker website, where you will find a list of all Statutory Instruments currently being considered by the UK Parliament.
The list of Statutory Instruments is automatically displayed in date order, with the latest SI to be laid before Parliament appearing at the very top of the list.

• New, Live and Concluded Statutory Instruments
  The website divides Statutory Instruments into three categories – new, live and concluded – and uses a traffic light system to distinguish between them.
  All Statutory Instruments on the SI Tracker will be assigned one of these labels, which are displayed at the top left of each entry.

• New Statutory Instruments: A green icon indicates that a Statutory Instrument is new and began its parliamentary scrutiny within the past seven days.

• Live Statutory Instruments : An amber icon indicates that a Statutory Instrument was laid before Parliament more than seven days ago but has yet to complete its parliamentary scrutiny.

• Concluded Statutory Instruments : A red icon indicates that a Statutory Instrument has now concluded its parliamentary scrutiny and has been added to the SI Tracker archive.

• Concluded Statutory Instruments
  Concluded Statutory Instruments do not appear in the live list of Statutory Instruments. To access concluded SIs, you must click on the ‘Concluded’ button. The button is directly above the entries of SIs, adjacent to the search bar.

• Clicking on the Concluded button displays our archive of all concluded SIs laid before Parliament since the beginning of the 2017-2019 parliamentary Session. The concluded SIs are listed in order of laid date.

• Withdrawn Statutory Instruments
  Withdrawn Statutory Instruments also do not appear in the list of Statutory Instruments. To access them, you must click on the ‘Withdrawn’ button, adjacent to the ‘Concluded’ button.

• Clicking on the Withdrawn button displays our archive of all SIs that were withdrawn before they completed their parliamentary process (unlike concluded SIs, which have completed their passage). Often, once an SI is withdrawn, a replacement SI will also have been laid to correct an error in the withdrawn SI. The Withdrawn SIs are listed in order of laid date.

• Withdrawn Statutory Instruments : A brown icon indicates that a Statutory Instrument has been withdrawn from the process before it completed its parliamentary scrutiny.

• Revoked and Rejected Statutory Instruments
  A Statutory Instrument may also be marked as rejected if either House rejects it during its passage through Parliament. If it is rejected, an entry will appear with a maroon icon. However, this icon is yet to be used, because no SIs have been rejected by Parliament since the SI Tracker was created.

• Rejected Statutory Instruments: A maroon icon indicates that a Statutory Instrument has been rejected by Parliament.

A Statutory Instrument may also be marked as revoked if it is revoked by another SI. A revoked SI will appear with the red Concluded icon, but a revoked icon and an alert will be included within the entry. However, an SI will be marked as revoked only if it is revoked by another SI, and not if it is revoked by primary legislation or struck down by a court judgment.

 Searching for a Statutory Instrument

Search bar

• You can use the search bar in the top right corner of the ‘All Statutory Instruments’ page to search for Statutory Instruments. The search bar will search for all new, live, concluded, and withdrawn Statutory Instruments. Search terms must be longer than two characters.

• The results will appear in order of the date they were laid (with the most recent at the top).
  Using the search bar looks for instances of the search term in the following fields:

  • The title
  • The SI number
  • The purpose of the SI
  • The parent Act

• Example search
  An example search is displayed on the right. The example shows the search bar being used to find all Statutory Instruments containing the phrase ‘employment rights’ in the relevant field.

• This search yields 36 results. The results include both live and concluded Statutory Instruments.

• Note that the search yields some Statutory Instruments that include ‘employment rights’ in the title and some that do not.
  The Public Interest Disclosure (Prescribed Persons) (Amendment) (Order) 2023 appears in a search for ‘employment rights’ because it is made under the Employment Rights Act 1999.

• Advanced Search
  You can also use the advanced search bar to limit your search by:

  • Text: Only SIs that contain specific text within their titles and SI number, or in their purpose or parent Act fields.
  • Policy area: Only SIs that fall within a specific policy area.
  • Department: Only SIs that were made by specific Departments or agencies.
  • Procedure: Only SIs that are subject to a particular procedure.
  • Date: Only SIs that were laid within a specific date range.
  • Combination: Only SIs that satisfy some combination of the above filters.
    The results will appear in order of the date they were laid (with the most recent at the top).

• After each use of the advanced search function, the entries in the filter boxes (policy areas, Departments, etc.) at the top are restored to their defaults and need to be re-entered before using the advanced search again.

• The ‘Policy areas’ filter only enables you to filter by the wider parent policies (e.g., Transport), and not by the more specific sub-policies (e.g., Aviation), though these sub-policies are each assigned to a parent policy. More detail can be found on pages 12 and 13 of this guide.

• Example advanced search

• Below is an example of an advanced search for all Statutory Instruments laid in 2021 that fall within the ‘Health and Social Care’ policy area and that were subject to the ‘Made

• Negative’ procedure. The result of that search is also shown below, which yielded 22 results.

• Policy area filter

• All Statutory Instruments are assigned one of 17 “parent” policy areas. You can use the policy area filter drop-down menu box at the top left of the ‘All Statutory Instruments’ page to refine the list of new and live SIs, displaying only entries that pertain to a certain policy area.

• To filter concluded SIs by policy area, you must first click the Concluded button, and then use the policy area filter.

• Above is an example use of the policy filter, showing only those new and live SIs within the ‘Health and Social Care’ policy area.

Sub-policy areas

• Each of the parent policies also contains a number of ‘sub-policies’ that reflect more specific policy areas. Most Statutory Instruments are also assigned to one of these sub-policies.
• When using the policy area filter, the sub-policies appear immediately below the filter buttons, above the list of SIs.
• To filter by sub-policy area, simply use the policy area filter and select one of the sub-policies that appear below.
• As with the policy area filter, to filter concluded Statutory Instruments by sub-policy area, you must first click the Concluded button, and then use the policy area filter and select the sub-policy.
• On the right is an example use of the sub-policy filter, showing only those new and live SIs within the ‘Roads’ sub-policy area.
• REUL Act, COVID-19 and Brexit Statutory Instruments
• Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023
• All Statutory Instruments that have been made under delegated powers contained in the Retained EU law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 – often called the REUL Act – are assigned a REUL Act icon.
  • By clicking on the REUL Act button at the top of the page, only those live Statutory Instruments that were made under REUL Act powers will be displayed.
  • Once you have clicked on the REUL Act button, you can also filter by policy area. For example, you can show only REUL Act SIs that are labelled with the Health and Social Care policy area.
  • Brexit and COVID-19
  • The ‘Brexit’ and ‘COVID-19’ buttons are legacy features that are no longer in use, however they are still displayed next to concluded SIs that are part of the SI Tracker archive.
  • The buttons were used to label all SIs that were made under the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (and other Brexit-related Acts of Parliament), and all SIs laid in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, respectively.

What Statutory Instrument information is provided by the SI Tracker?

• The list view
  There are four key pieces of information provided at the list level (that is, via the ‘All Statutory Instruments’ page).

• Within the entry
  To access more detailed information about a Statutory Instrument, click on its title to be taken to a page containing more details. Below, and on the next two pages, is an explanation of each piece of information on an individual Statutory Instrument’s page:

• Within the entry
  Below you can see the second half of another Statutory Instrument, with details of each additional feature:

Within the entry

• Withdrawn and rejected instruments

• If a Statutory Instrument is withdrawn from scrutiny by the Government, is subject to revocation by another SI, or is rejected by Parliament, a warning notification will appear at the top of the more details page for the SI.

• Prayers and non-fatal motions
  Warning notifications will also appear in the parliamentary activity section of the SI entry when a ‘prayer’ motion or ‘non-fatal’ motion is tabled by an MP or Peer.

• Symbols
  For certain SIs, the following symbols may appear at the bottom of the entry, below any transcripts/reports. The EU-related and EVEL icons will only be included on concluded SIs, since the processes are now redundant or abolished:

Consultations

The list view

• The SI Tracker also provides information on all Government consultations that relate to or are likely to lead to the making of Statutory Instruments.

• The list of consultations operates using the same three categories used for SIs: new, live, and concluded. A consultation is categorised as concluded as soon as the consultation period has expired.

• The list appears in date order, with the most recently published consultation at the top. You can also filter by policy area, just as with SIs.

• Within the entry
  To access more detailed information about a consultation, click on its title to be taken to a page containing more details. Below is an explanation of each piece of information within an individual consultation’s page:

Using the dashboard

• Adding, removing, and monitoring items on your watch list
• The SI Tracker allows you to add individual Statutory Instruments and consultations to your own personal watch list. There is no limit to the number of items that can be added to your watch list. Items on your watch list can be accessed via your Dashboard, which can be accessed via the sidebar.
• Adding an item to the watch list generates personal notifications within the app, informing you whenever an item on the watch list is updated. The dashboard will also display upcoming activity relating to items on your watch list (see page 23).
• The dashboard lists all SIs and consultations in date order. You can also sort your watch list alphabetically and can filter your watchlist by type of entry (Statutory Instrument or consultation).
• Adding, removing, and monitoring items on your watch list
• You can add items to your watch list in two ways:
  • Via the list view: Clicking the grey button at the top-right of each Statutory Instrument and consultation.
  • Within the entry: Clicking on the “add to watch list” button at the top right of the page.
• The same process applies when removing items from your watch list. Alternatively, you can also remove items from your watch list from within the Dashboard.
• Via the list view:

Using the dashboard

• Upcoming activity

• The dashboard also provides you with a chronological list of ‘upcoming activity’ relating to the Statutory Instruments and consultations that you have added to your watch list.
  Only the two most immediate dates will appear on the right-hand side of the dashboard. Click the ‘see all upcoming activity’ button below to expand this list.

• Notifications
  You will receive a tailored notification when an item in your watch list is updated. Notifications are triggered by the following changes:

  • The tabling & scheduling of prayer motions
  • The tabling & scheduling of non-fatal motions in the House of Lords
  • The scheduling of a debate
  • The scheduling of an approval motion for affirmative instruments
  • The conclusion of a scrutiny periods for negative or made affirmative Statutory Instruments
  • The upgrading of a strengthened procedure Statutory Instrument
  • The withdrawal of an SI by the Government
  • The rejection of an SI by Parliament
  • The conclusion of a consultation
  • The publication of debate transcripts, committee reports, or any other related documents
  • Any alerts providing information on the progress of the SI, including committees drawing the special attention of either House to the SI.

• There are two ways you can receive notifications:

1.  **Email:** To opt in to email notifications, click on your username at the bottom left of the screen to access your Account page. There will be an option on the right – under ‘Preferences’ – to receive email notifications. This is unrelated to the daily SI Tracker email.
2.  **In app** : A numbered white notification icon will appear at the top right of the notifications button on the sidebar. To view the notifications, click the button. A pop-up box will appear outlining the notification(s) and providing an option to either ‘dismiss’ the notification or see more ‘details’. The most recent notifications will appear at the top.

• Downloads
  You can download a CSV file of all the SIs and consultations saved to your watch list on the account settings page. The account settings page can be accessed by clicking on your username at the bottom of the sidebar and selecting “account”. The CSV provide a list of all the items in your watchlist, as well as all the details that can be found within their entries, including laid and made dates, parent Acts, and summaries.

Events calendar

• The SI Tracker also provides a month-by-month calendar view of Statutory Instrument-related business in the UK Parliament. The calendar can be accessed by clicking on ‘Events calendar’ on the left-hand sidebar.
• n icon next to the event will indicate the category of event:
  •  : Events taking place in the House of Lords
  • : Events taking place in the House of Commons
  • : Other events (scrutiny end dates and consultation end dates)
• Other features on the events calendar:
  • Filter by : Only show events within a specific House.
  • Watching : Only view events related to SIs and consultations on your watchlist.
  • Brexit : Only show events for Brexit-related SIs and consultations. However, since the Brexit-related entries are no longer updated, no further dates will be displayed.

Events calendar

• The specific events that the calendar will display are:
  • Scrutiny period end dates for negative and made affirmative SIs.
  • Upgrade period end dates for strengthened REUL Act SIs.
  • Approval motions scheduled in each House.
  • Debates scheduled in each House, either in the chamber or in a committee.
  • Closing dates for consultations.
• A pop-up box will appear when you click on a specific entry in the calendar. The box will provide you a ‘details’ button, which will take you to the entry for the SI or consultation that you have selected.

Daily SI Tracker Email

• You will also receive a regular email with updates on:

  1. Any new SIs laid before Parliament.
  2.  Any new Commencement Orders bringing existing legislation into force.
  3. Any new Government consultations that could lead to the laying of SIs.

• The email is sent at approximately 14:00 every working day. While Parliament is sitting, if no new Statutory Instruments are laid, commencement orders made or SI-related consultations published on a particular day, then an email drawing attention to that fact will still be sent.

• However, during recess, dissolution and prorogation, emails are only sent when there are new SIs, commencement orders or SI-related consultations that day.

• An example email is displayed on the right. The email is split into sections:

  1. New Statutory Instruments
     Statutory Instruments laid on the same day as the email.
     Statutory Instruments laid on the preceding day but published too late in the day to be included in that day’s email.
     New Commencement Orders.

  2. New SI-related consultations.

• The links in the email will take you to the relevant entry on the SI Tracker.

• Attention will be drawn in the email to any special Statutory Instruments, such as those laid under the REUL Act.

• If you have any procedural questions about an item listed in the email, or any problems using the Tracker, the appropriate contact details can be found at the bottom of the email.

Contacts

• If you have any procedural questions about an item listed on the SI Tracker or in the daily email, or any problems using the Tracker, the appropriate contact details can be found:
• At the bottom of the daily email.
• At the bottom of the side-bar on the SI Tracker.
• If you wish to update your account’s username, password, or email address, this can be done via the account page on the SI Tracker, by changing the relevant details and clicking the ‘update profile’ button.
• To change the email associated with the account and which will receive the daily email, to reallocate the account to a new user, to add new accounts, or to manage or enquire about any other aspect of your account with us, you should contact Dr Ruth Fox at ruth.fox@hansardsociety.org.uk.

THE STATUTORY INSTRUMENT TRACKER: USER GUIDE

References

• Welcome to GOV.UK
• Legislation.gov.uk

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