Commentary on Sections Part 1 – Procedure for Making Welsh Subordinate Legislation Section 37F – Other Welsh statutory instruments to be laid before Senedd Cymru
42.Section 37F provides a ‘default’ position for what is to happen in relation to all subordinate legislation made by Welsh statutory instrument that is not subject to one of the procedures set out in sections 37C, 37D or 37E. In such cases it must be laid before the Senedd.
43.The instrument must be laid before the Senedd as soon as practicable after it is made. If that is after the subordinate legislation has come into force the responsible authority must explain to the Llywydd, in writing, why the subordinate legislation was not laid before it came into force (subsections (4) and (5)).
44.New section 12A of the 2019 Act explains what is meant by laying a document before Senedd Cymru (see also paragraph 215 below).
45.Although section 37F provides this default provision, by virtue of subsection (2) it does not include subordinate legislation made in a Welsh statutory instrument that has been classified by the responsible authority as a local instrument (for which see section 37B(4)), one made under the special Senedd procedure (for which see subsection (6) and the Senedd’s Standing Order 28) or one made under an enactment listed in future regulations made by the Welsh Ministers under section 37F(2)(c). Any such regulations must be made subject to the Senedd approval procedure set out in section 37C (see section 43 of the 2019 Act, as substituted by Schedule 3 of this Act).
46.For the application of this requirement to new subordinate legislation made by a responsible authority under enactments that were made or enacted before Part 2A comes into effect, see section 37H and Schedule 1A. For such subordinate legislation made by the Welsh Minsters acting with another person (not a devolved Welsh authority) or as an Order in Council, see Schedules 1B and 1C respectively. In such cases, this will mean that in cases where subordinate legislation made by statutory instrument (or now as a Welsh statutory instrument) would not have had to be laid before the Senedd, it will now be laid.
47.The result is that all subordinate legislation made by Welsh statutory instrument (as well as certain statutory instruments and Orders in Council) and not subject to a Senedd procedure will, unless subsection (2) or its equivalent in the relevant Schedule applies, be laid before the Senedd.