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This legislation is in the series of "ministerial directions"

The Exception from the Duty to Publish (Department for Business and Trade) (No. 1) Direction 2023

It is no. 1 in the series of ministerial directions.

This series is separate from other delegated legislation, mostly in the form of "statutory instruments".

Other legislation with "directions" in the name is classified as a statutory instrument. For example: The Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016.

What is the difference between these two pieces of legislation in how they were classified?

phoog
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nullmatrix876
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3 Answers3

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Broadly speaking, a Ministerial Direction (MDs) is a written instruction from a minister to a civil servant or to a government department. It is not a statutory instrument, and so does not constitute legislation.

The normal usage of an MD is described by a Commons Library briefing paper like this:

If a UK Government Minister decides to instruct a Departmental Accounting Officer (a senior civil servant) to proceed with spending, contrary to the advice which has been given by the Accounting Officer, the written instruction is called a ministerial direction.

The list of all such MDs shows that they are normally in the form of a letter from a minister to a civil servant (example).

However, the specific MD mentioned in the question is not an MD of this type, and (at the time of writing) appears to be unique, being the only one listed on legislation.gov.uk. This may be because the power to make MDs are not normally specified in legislation, but are a normal part of intra-departmental communication.

In this case, the MD is still an instruction from a minister to a civil servant - in this case the King's Printer (an office held by the Controller of His Majesty's Stationery Office) - but the power to do is specified in the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.

It may be that the power to make this unique kind of MD is specified in legislation because it relieves the King's Printer of a statutory duty (in this case, it removes a legal requirement to publish certain EU legislation), which is not true of normal MDs. Equally, it may have been kept as an MD, and not an SI, because it again remains a matter of communication within government, for which an SI is not necessary.

Steve Melnikoff
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The description

There are three main types of UK Statutory Instrument: 'Orders', 'Regulations', 'Rules'. However, there is no limit imposed on the descriptions that may be given to Statutory Instruments. Other examples include 'Scheme', 'Direction' and 'Declaration'. Different types of instruments serve different functions, but they all have the same legislative force.

Dale M
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A statutory instrument is needed if a primary legislation (Acts of Parliament) says that a power is to be exercised by statutory instrument. Statutory instruments are subject to Statutory Instruments Act 1946.

Acts of Parliament may require that directions be given in the form of statutory instruments, for example, the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984. As a result, the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016 are published as an SI.

The particular power granted to the Minister in the Schedule 5 of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 does not require a statutory instrument to be issued. However, it requires the publication of such direction, so a separate series was created.

xngtng
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