Parliamentary Scrutiny of Emergency Powers
COVID-19 Inquiry · Module 2: Core Decision-Making · Issued 20 November 2025 · Addressed to: Cabinet Office
Source — verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation
The UK government and devolved administrations should ensure that the draft affirmative procedure is the standard process for enacting substantial and wide-ranging powers in a civil emergency, such as a pandemic, under primary public health legislation. Any departure from this procedure should be the exception, with clear criteria and safeguards in place to prevent the bypassing of parliamentary scrutiny.
COVID-19 Inquiry, Module 2: Core Decision-Making · 20 Nov 2025 Source PDF →
Published evidence summary
Publicly available evidence relating to this recommendation:
- The 2025 Guide to Making Legislation includes a Delegated Powers Toolkit setting out considerations for delegated powers (Guide to Making Legislation, Cabinet Office, 2025).
- The response does not commit to making the draft affirmative procedure the standard process, stating that different emergencies may require different legislative approaches on a case-by-case basis.
- No specific commitment to mandatory sunset clauses or bimonthly ministerial reporting has been made.
Response — verbatim from government
●Scottish Government — initial response
No formal response published by this government.
Scottish Government · 20 Nov 2025
●Welsh Government — follow-up
No formal response published by this government.
Welsh Government · 20 Nov 2025
●Northern Ireland Executive — follow-up
No formal response published by this government.
Northern Ireland Executive · 20 Nov 2025
●UK Government — follow-up
The government agrees that the legislative response to emergencies should be clear, well-defined and subject to the appropriate parliamentary oversight. Sunset clauses and duties to report can be useful mechanisms to ensure that this is the case. These have been successfully used with previous pieces of legislation to ensure a balance of appropriate scrutiny from parliaments alongside a need to respond in an appropriate manner to the situation at that time.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the government has continued to strengthen and refine the guidance on drafting and framing legislation. This includes the publication of the Delegated Powers Toolkit in the government's 2025 Guide to making legislation which sets out considerations for the balance between primary and secondary legislation and how to appropriately construct delegated powers.
The government recognises that different emergencies will require different legislative approaches and would need to be considered on a case-by-case basis to assess the most appropriate response, including the appropriate parliamentary procedures. This would be a matter for the governments at that time.
UK Government · 20 Nov 2025 Written response →
●UK Government — follow-up
The government agrees that the legislative response to emergencies should be clear, well-defined and subject to the appropriate parliamentary oversight. Sunset clauses and duties to report can be useful mechanisms to ensure that this is the case. These have been successfully used with previous pieces of legislation to ensure a balance of appropriate scrutiny from parliaments alongside a need to respond in an appropriate manner to the situation at that time.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the government has continued to strengthen and refine the guidance on drafting and framing legislation. This includes the publication of the Delegated Powers Toolkit in the government's 2025 Guide to making legislation which sets out considerations for the balance between primary and secondary legislation and how to appropriately construct delegated powers.
The government recognises that different emergencies will require different legislative approaches and would need to be considered on a case-by-case basis to assess the most appropriate response, including the appropriate parliamentary procedures. This would be a matter for the governments at that time.
UK Government · 25 Mar 2026 Written response →
Evidence trail — what's actually happened since
- 20 Nov 2025 Status: Pending. No government response yet received. Module 2 report published 20 November 2025. Source →
Each entry above links to a primary source — gov.uk written statement, consultation response document, or inspection report. The Index does not characterise government intent; it tracks what has been published.
How this page is built
Source and Response are verbatim from primary documents. The Evidence trail records published activity since — written statements, consultation outcomes, inspection findings, parliamentary references. The Index does not paraphrase or characterise intent; it tracks what has been published. Where the evidence is the absence of action (a missed deadline, a slipped timetable), that absence is documented from primary sources rather than inferred.
This recommendation's data is verified periodically against primary sources. The Index is monitored for staleness weekly.