ABSTRACT
By volume, secondary, or delegated, legislation is the largest source of legislation in the English legal system. In 1998, there were 3,319 pieces of UK delegated legislation compared with only 49 pieces of primary legislation. In 2001, the peak year for delegated legislation between 1950 and the present, there were some 4,147 pieces of UK delegated legislation and, by contrast, only 25 Acts of Parliament! By 2006, the delegated legislation figure had settled at around 3,500. So what is this mass of legislation concerned with? Who reads it all? Is it all ‘good law’?
