Website of the Department of Health

Statutory instruments

Statutory Instruments (S.I.s) are what is known as secondary or subordinate legislation. They normally consist of an order, regulations, rules or a scheme and are made under powers conferred by primary legislation (an enabling Act). They are normally signed by a Minister and then laid before Parliament. On a given date they come into force and become law. In general, subordinate legislation makes detailed provisions, which supplement the enabling Act. Subordinate legislation is also used when frequent or speedy changes in the law are required.

The authoritative text of statutory instruments (SIs) is published on the website of the Office for Public Sector Information (OPSI), where it is indexed by the year and number of issue.

Selected SIs issued by the Department are also listed below, but this index is no longer maintained.