Section 41: Urgent remedial regulations
145.Whereas section 40 sets out the normal process for making remedial regulations under section 39, section 41 sets out a special process for urgent cases. Under the section 41 process, remedial regulations can be made and come into force immediately but will cease to have effect if the Scottish Parliament has not approved them by resolution within a certain period of their being made. The section 41 process also requires consultation on the regulations and allows for the possibility of their being changed, or replaced, within that period.
146.The period within which remedial regulations must be approved by resolution of the Parliament if they are to remain in force is 120 days (subsection (8)), but subsection (10) creates a special rule about how those 120 days are to be counted. A day is not to be counted if the Parliament is dissolved (which is to say that the day falls during the election period between one session of the Parliament ending and the new one beginning following the election). Nor is a day to be counted if it is a day within a period of 5 or more days during which the Parliament is in recess (details of when the Parliament is in recess can be found on its website, its recesses typically coincide with school holidays in Scotland).
147.Immediately after making remedial regulations following the section 41 process, the Scottish Ministers must give notice of them to the public and the Scottish Parliament (subsection (2)). In giving notice of the regulations to the public, the Scottish Ministers must invite comment on them within a 60 day period (but those 60 days are to be counted in the manner described in the paragraph above in relation to the 120 day period).
