Some 98% of new laws introduced by the government in 2009 were brought in as statutory instruments without full parliamentary debate, research has revealed today.

Data from legal information provider Sweet & Maxwell showed that the number of laws introduced by the government during the last year rose by 16% to 2,492, up from 2,148 in the previous 12 months.

This is the equivalent of almost 10 new laws per working day, and was the largest number of new laws introduced since 2001, the study said.

Alina Lourie, director of Enterprise-Wide Solutions at Sweet & Maxwell, said: ‘Historically there does tend to be a spike in new legislation following an economic crisis.

‘There is pressure to introduce new laws both to deal with the fallout from the recession and to try to tackle the causes of the crisis.’

Examples of specific credit crunch related laws introduced in 2009 include: The Value Added Tax Regulations 2009; Northern Rock Transfer Order 2009; Northern Rock (Tax Consequences) Regulation 2009; Landsbanki Freezing (Revocation) Order 2009; and the Bradford & Bingley Compensation Scheme Order 2009.