What is a UK Statutory Instrument?
What is a Regulation in UK Parliament?
In the UK, the Parliament will pass a series of legislative instruments, including
- Acts of Parliament
- Statutory Instruments (e.g. Regulations, Orders)
- Amendments to Statutory Instruments
This article describes Statutory Instruments (SIs), which include Regulations.
SIs are documents that government departments will make to create changes to the existing laws.
Each SI will have a purpose which is explained in detail in background material.
Approximately one-third of the SIs receive a formal parliamentary approval as the changes they make are mostly administrative, but they are very important as they largely dictate the tasks that organisations and individuals have to abide by.
SIs usually have the following in their title:
- Rule
- Order
- Regulation
Do I need to include Regulations in my ISO Compliance Register?
Statutory instruments, including Regulations, Rules and Orders are the most common type of legal instrument and describe the key tasks that you need to abide by, or undertake in your organisation.
Therefore, it is crucial that you include the Regulations in your ISO Compliance Register.
Are Amendments the same as Regulations?
Regulations, Rules and Orders will be updated from time to time. Often, the name of the Amendment will reflect the regulation. For example, the:
The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme Order 2020
was updated by:
The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme (Amendment) Order 2020
The Amendment will detail the changes that will be made to the preceding SI (in this case, it is an ‘Order’)
How do I update my Register if Amendments happen?
In the ISO Compliance Register tool, your Register will hold the original Regulation and all changes will be appended to it. This means you don’t have to make any changes directly to your Register.
However, you should check through the Dashboard on a monthly basis, and keep up with your monthly updates that you receive from the team on updates and amendments that are made.
When you audit each item in your Register, you should check the updates in the articles and make sure that your internal procedures have been updated to reflect any tasks that the Amendments enforce.