Redundancy Answers

Glossary of terms used on this site

S

Statute

A statute is the posh word for an Act (of parliament). Statutes are collectively known as primary legislation.

For a statute to become law, it has to be approved by the House of Commons, then the House of Lords and then has to be rubber stamped by the monarch (the queen at the moment).

A statute is different to a statutory instrument. Statutory instruments are also known as Regulations and are made under delegated authority from a Statute. They are collectively known as secondary legislation. They can be made more rapidly as they don??™t have to go through the formal approval process in the same way as a statute.

Recent statutes and statutory instruments (SIs for short) can be found at www.opsi.gov.uk.

All courts have to interpret and enforce the wording of statutes and statutory instruments.