Retrospective Legislation
The question
To ask the Attorney General, whether the Government Legal Service has a policy on when retrospective legislation is justified.
Answered by Attorney General's Office
As set out in the Guide to Making Legislation, where a department proposes to include a provision that would be retrospective (whether formally retrospective or with retrospective effect), they must first seek the consent of the Law Officers.
Each case is considered by the Law Officers on its facts. In order to grant consent, the Law Officers need to be convinced that the general public interest in the law not being changed retrospectively is outweighed by the public interest of legislating retrospectively in that particular case.
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