Legislation Act 2019

Parliament’s oversight of secondary legislation - Confirmation

127: Confirmable secondary legislation must state this fact

You could also call this:

"Some laws must say they need to be approved by a deadline or they will be cancelled."

When you look at secondary legislation, you might see some special rules. The explanatory note for this type of legislation must say that it needs to be confirmed by an Act before a certain deadline. It must also say that if it is not confirmed, it will be revoked on that deadline.

You will also see the deadline stated in the explanatory note. This is an important piece of information that helps you understand what will happen to the legislation. The deadline is the date by which the legislation must be confirmed.

If the explanatory note does not include these statements, it does not affect whether the secondary legislation is valid or not. You can still consider the legislation to be valid, even if the statements are missing. This means that the legislation can still be used until it is either confirmed or revoked.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS150786.

This page was last updated on 24 May 2025 — View changes

Topics:

Government and voting > Government departments

126: Effect on some legislation of not being confirmed by deadline (whether or not earlier revoked), or

"What happens to some laws if they are not approved on time"

128: Parliamentary Counsel Office continues, or

"The Parliamentary Counsel Office keeps working as usual, led by the Attorney-General or Prime Minister."

Part 5Parliament’s oversight of secondary legislation
Confirmation

127Confirmable secondary legislation must state this fact

The explanatory note of secondary legislation to which this subpart applies must—
state (or contain statements to the effect) that the legislation must be confirmed by an Act before the deadline and that, if it is not confirmed, it will be revoked on that deadline; and
state the deadline.

However, a failure to include those statements does not affect the validity of the secondary legislation.