This page looks at the amendment to introduce more long-lasting parliamentary scrutiny of measures in the Wellbeing Bill. On January 7th and 8th 2026 the government tabled amendments to the Children Not In School clauses of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. The next stage of the bill in parliament is Report in the Lords which starts on January 14th. Children Not In School is half way through the bill, hence we might expect to reach this on day 3 of 5 Report ie Wednesday January 21st. Regardless of any disagreement or reservations expressed during debate, governments usually win the vote on their own amendments.
Why Do Regulations Matter
Regulations are secondary legislation setting out exactly how a law will operate. While it is going through parliament a law is called a “bill” but once it has finished in parliament and received royal assent it becomes an Act. An Act is primary legislation. The government has to wait until there is an Act in place before it is able to start making regulations and the changes to the law set out in the Act cannot come fully into force until the regulations are complete.
Regulations must be approved by parliament (or the Welsh equivalent as Children Not In School has been extended to Wales) It is much easier for the government to change regulations than to change an Act of Parliament, which is why keeping things “off the face of the bill” and leaving it all to regulations later can become highly charged and controversial.
With the Wellbeing Bill up till now the government wanted ONLY THE FIRST set of regulations to be subject to scrutiny [via affirmative procedure” and “approval procedure”] with any later changes able to be made quickly and easily through a different process.
This was criticised by the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee back in April 2025 which took the view that first-time affirmative powers were inappropriate where there was nothing to prevent significant changes being made on subsequent exercises of the power. On January 9th 2026 the government responded to the committee conceding the changes. Both the report and the government response are linked from this page
The effect of the government amendments is that in future EACH TIME the regulations are changed, not just the first time, the Westminster parliament or the Senedd respectively will have to look closely and vote in favour of the proposed changes.
Section 569 Education Act 1996
References to section 569(2A) in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill refer to the bit towards the end of the Education Act 1996 which deals with regulations, see link HERE.
How Bill Will Look After Changes
(3) For section 569(2A) (regulations subject to affirmative procedure), substitute—
“(2A) A statutory instrument which contains (whether alone or with other
provision) any of the following regulations to be made by the Secretary
of State may not be made unless a draft of the instrument has been
laid before, and approved by a resolution of, each House of
Parliament—
(a) the first regulations under section 436B(6),
(b) regulations under section 436C(2),
(c) the first regulations under section 436C(4),
(d) regulations under section 436E(1)(a),
(e) regulations under section 436E(7),
(f) the first regulations under section 436E(9),
(g) the first regulations under section 436F(1),
(h) regulations under section 436F(2),
(i) regulations under section 550ZA(3)(f),
(j) regulations under section 550ZC(7), or
(k) the first regulations under paragraph 5 of Schedule 31A.”
(3) In section 569(2A)—
(a) after “section” insert “436B(6), 436C(1)(e), 436C(2), 436C(4), 436E(1)(a),
436E(7), 436E(9), 436F(1), 436F(2),”;
(b) after “550ZC(7)” insert “, or under paragraph 5 of Schedule 31A”.”
(4) In section 569(2B), (2BA) and (2BB) for “the National Assembly for Wales”
(in each place that it occurs) substitute “Senedd Cymru”.
(5) After section 569(2BB) insert—
“(2BC) A statutory instrument which contains any of the following regulations
to be made by the Welsh Ministers is subject to annulment in
pursuance of a resolution of Senedd Cymru—
(a) regulations under any of the following provisions, other than
the first set of such regulations—
(i) section 436B(6),
(ii) section 436C(4),
(iii) section 436E(9),
(iv) section 436F(1),
(v) paragraph 5 of Schedule 31A, or
(b) regulations under section 436I(6).
(2BD) A statutory instrument which contains (whether alone or with other
provision) any of the following regulations to be made by the Welsh
Ministers may not be made unless a draft of the instrument has been
laid before, and approved by resolution of, Senedd Cymru—
(a) the first regulations under section 436B(6),(b)
(b) regulations under section 436C(2),
(c) the first regulations under section 436C(4),
(d) regulations under section 436E(1)(a),
(e) regulations under section 436E(7),
(f) the first regulations under section 436E(9),
(g) the first regulations under section 436F(1),
(h) regulations under section 436F(2), or
(i) the first regulations under paragraph 5 of Schedule 31A.”
(5) In section 569(2B)—
(a) omit “A statutory instrument containing”;
(b) after “397” insert “, 436I(6)”;
(c) for the words after “the Welsh Ministers” substitute “are subject to the
Senedd annulment procedure (see section 37E of the Legislation (Wales)
Act 2019 (anaw 4)).”
(5A) In section 569(2BA)— (a) omit the words from the beginning to “provision)”; (b) for the words after “2018” substitute “are subject to the Senedd approval procedure (see section 37C of the Legislation (Wales) Act 2019).”
(5B) In section 569(2BB) – (a) omit the words from the beginning to “provision)”; (b) after “section” insert “436B(6), 436C(1)(e), 436C(2), 436C(4), 436E(1)(a), 436E(7), 436E(9), 436F(1), 436F(2) or”; (c) after `579(3C)” insert “, or under paragraph 5 of Schedule 31A”; (d) for the words after “579(3C)” substitute “are subject to the Senedd approval procedure (see section 37C of the Legislation (Wales) Act 2019).”