The House of Lords Constitution Committee has today published a report which says that the Government should do more to inform Parliament when ministers propose to take action before Parliament has passed the legislation that would make that action legal. The Committee says that when ministers want to act in anticipation of legislation, known as "pre-empting Parliament", they should set out what they want to do, why and under what powers in a statement made to Parliament. The Committee also says the Government should publish a full list of instances where they pre-empted Parliament at the end of each parliamentary session. The Committee calls on the Government to consolidate the principles and practices governing pre-emption and restate them clearly in the Cabinet Manual. It stresses that pre-emption should not take place when it might threaten the principle of effective parliamentary scrutiny.

Contains the 4th session of the 28th Parliament through the session of the Parliament.