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Are you suffering from an excess of affirmative instruments? Sounds nasty, doesn't it? And there has been a particularly severe outbreak in the House of Lords...

To explain: below the radar in Parliament large quantities of secondary legislation are processed by both houses. These are Statutory Instruments (SIs) - regulations ministers are given the power to enact under laws already passed... the current batch includes changes in immigration rules and new regulations on registering private and voluntary sector providers of health and social care. Important stuff.

One of the rows over the Digital Economy Bill in the Lords was that the government proposed to give the Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, sweeping powers to re-write copyright law by SI.

And the - one of those diligent bodies beavering away in remote Westminster committee rooms, which occasionally erupt into the limelight - has now complained about the gross tonnage they're being expected to deal with. This January's total of 117 is more than double the 49 SIs set down in January 2009.

It's normal, the committee observes, for there to be an upsurge in the months before a general election - March 2005 saw 301 SIs put down. But they clearly fear an SI overload.....which could lead to a multitude going through unscrutinised. Worse, the proportion of SIs which have to be debated - even if the debates are pretty perfunctory - has risen sharply.

These Affirmative Instruments are usually quite important - but the committee clearly fears a surfeit of them will prove impossible to digest.

According to the Lib Dems' eagle-eyed Lords Whips Office, all this is the consequence of too many "skeleton bills" which are to be fleshed out with detailed regulations passed later as SIs... with minimal or no debate. The Lib Dems suggest the government is desperately trying to get legislation in place before they lose power...

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