The Guardian is reporting on a bill is being presented in Parliament in the UK that would allow the ministers to make laws and without Parliamentary oversight and allow ministers to delegates powers to unelected officials.
While it sounds really scary, it is and it isn't. This moves England more towards what the US has now, which I don't necessarily approve of. In the US, it's possible for Congress to say "We're passing the Clean Toilets Act of 2006" which mandates that all toilets pass certain cleanliness standards to be determined at some later date. It's then up to the executive branch to dictate the enforcement of the Clean Toilets Act, or as it was known when it was being passed USA Surely Toilet Users Prefer Inspectable Derrieres Act. The executive branch would put the enforcement under an existing Department, or more usually, take it as an opportunity to create an entirely new Department: The Department of Investigative Professionals Specializing in Highly Invasive Toilet Searches which are filled with non-elected bureaucrats who then enforce the law with little Congressional oversight.
I do think the key differences here are that the President is not supposed to have the power to rewrite a law at will, as this bill seems to allow a sitting Minister to do, and in the US, the Congress does have the power, if so inclined, to fence in the powers allowed the executive branch.
This British bill does not seem to grant the Parliament the same powers.
Text of the actual bill can be found here.

Leave a comment