The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 and the European Union (Future Relationship) Act 2020 provide UK Ministers and the Welsh Ministers with regulation-making powers to amend existing primary and secondary legislation.

Paragraph 4 of Schedule 7 to the 2018 Act and paragraph 9 of Schedule 5 to the 2020 Act provide for a Senedd committee to ‘sift’ certain regulations that the Welsh Ministers propose to make under the negative procedure; these are known as ‘proposed negative regulations”. The sift Committee will then consider the appropriate procedure to be followed (which will usually be either the negative procedure or the affirmative procedure). Further information on the different procedures can be found on the Subordinate legislation page.

Details of the sifting process are set out in Schedule 7 to the 2018 Act and Schedule 5 to the 2020 Act. In brief:

• a draft of the proposed negative regulations shall be laid before the Senedd;
• within a period of 14 calendar days after laying, the Welsh Ministers may not make the proposed negative regulations (i.e. sign them into law), unless the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee has made a recommendation as to the appropriate procedure for the regulations;
• within those 14 calendar days, the Committee may consider the proposed negative regulations and recommend that the regulations should follow an alternative procedure (such as the affirmative procedure);
• after the 14 calendar days have elapsed (or sooner if the Committee has already made a recommendation) the Welsh Ministers may proceed with the proposed negative regulations under either:
• the procedure recommended, such as the affirmative procedure (i.e. the instrument requires a debate and a vote in the Senedd before it may be made and brought into force), or
• the negative procedure (i.e. the instrument is made and may be brought into force, but it will be annulled if the Senedd resolves to annul it within 40 days of it being laid).

See also Standing Orders 21 and 27 for the Senedd procedures that apply to the scrutiny of proposed negative regulations.