Finance bill delegates huge legislative power to unelected people
Draft Conduct of Financial Institutions Bill reveals a lack of effort to prescribe substantive rules in the bill itself
The Treasury wants parliament to give up large swathes of its lawmaking power in favour of a handful of unelected appointees. Mocking constitutional requirements of the separation of powers and the rule of law (as opposed to rule by human beings), the draft Conduct of Financial Institutions (CoFI) Bill delegates colossal legislative power to the “executive committee” of the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA). This committee will consist of three to five “commissioners”, all to be appointed by the finance minister. The bill assigns wide-ranging, unrestrained legislative power to this committee. It contains very few rules or guidelines relative to the myriad new laws it is to be authorised to prescribe, to be known as “conduct standards”. The Constitutional Court has declared that while parliament may, within limits, delegate power to make subordinate legislation, it may not assign plenary legislative powers. At Westminster, the constitution committee of the house of lords conc...
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