Committee Details

The information on this page relates to the committees of the 48th – 53rd Parliaments, and ceased on 30 June 2011.  

The Scrutiny of Legislation Committee of the 53rd Parliament was established by the Queensland Legislative Assembly on 15 September 1995. The committee's area of responsibility as set out in the Parliament of Queensland Act 2001 is to consider:

• the application of fundamental legislative principles to particular Bills and subordinate legislation; and
• the lawfulness of particular subordinate legislation

by examining all Bills and subordinate legislation.

The committee also has a general monitoring role in relation to various matters, including:

• regulatory impact statements;
• explanatory notes; and
• tabling and disallowance of subordinate legislation.

Terms of reference 

(1) The Scrutiny of Legislation Committee's area of responsibility is to consider - 

    (a) the application of fundamental legislative principles to particular Bills and particular subordinate legislation; and

    (b) the lawfulness of particular subordinate legislation;

by examining all Bills and subordinate legislation.

(2) The committee's area of responsibility includes monitoring generally the operation of -

    (a) the following provisions of the Legislative Standards Act 1992 -

• section 4 (Meaning of "fundamental legislative principles");
• part 4 (Explanatory notes); and

    (b) the following provisions of the Statutory Instruments Act 1992 - 

• section 9 (Meaning of "subordinate legislation");
• part 5 (Guidelines for regulatory impact statements);
• part 6 (Procedures after making of subordinate legislation);
• part 7 (Staged automatic expiry of subordinate legislation);
• part 8 (Forms); and
• part 10 (Transitional).

Mode of operation

In respect of the scrutiny of bills, the committee tables a report to Parliament, the "Legislation Alert", at the beginning of every sitting week. These alerts canvas any concerns that the committee has about the compliance of Bills (introduced into the House in the previous sitting week) with the fundamental legislative principles.

The alerts also report ministerial responses to issues raised in earlier digests. The main aim of the legislation alerts is to provide information to the House in an effort to enhance debate on compliance of legislation with fundamental legislative principles.

The committee also examines subordinate legislation after it is made to assess its compliance with the fundamental legislative principles. Any concerns are raised with the relevant Minister. Most problems are addressed by the provision of additional information or by undertakings from Ministers to introduce amendments to the committee's satisfaction. If an issue remains unresolved, the committee may report to Parliament on the problem and/or move to disallow the instrument in question.

An index listing subordinate legislation about which the committee is currently raising concerns with the relevant Minister is included in the committee's Legislation Alert. Once the committee's inquiries have been completed, the correspondence between the committee and the Minister is published in the alert.

The committee replaced the Committee of Subordinate Legislation which undertook parliamentary scrutiny of subordinate instruments between 1975 and 1995.