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Lord Judge LCJ astonished at the power of the executive

Friday 16 July 2010 at 2:19 pm | In News | Post Comment

The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge in a speech at the Lord Mayor’s dinner for the judiciary made critical comments on the ease with which new laws can be made. He singled out the lack of proper scrutiny by Parliament which has resulted in a shift in the balance of power towards the executive.

He referred to “Henry VIII” clauses which astonished him. The Statute of Proclamations 1539 allowed the King’s (Henry VIII) proclamations to have the same force as Acts of Parliament and these frequently appear in legislation and allow ministers to make subsequent changes that would otherwise require parliamentary approval.

The example he gave was the Banking (Special Provisions) Act 2008, which grants to the Treasury power to disapply any other relevant statute bearing on the provisions of the 2008 Act or indeed any rule of law. Similar powers have also been granted by section 51 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010. There had been at least 120 Henry VIII clauses in the last Parliamentary session alone, but no one is collecting data.

His speech is here