Government Circulars in United Kingdom

Definition of Government Circulars

In accordance with the work A Dictionary of Law, this is a description of Government Circulars : Documents circulated by government departments on behalf of ministers, setting out principles and practices for the exercise of ministerial powers delegated to others. These may provide mere administrative guidelines or they may be intended to have legislative effect (i.e. as *delegated legislation), in which case any purported exercise of the delegated powers is invalid unless it complies with them.

See ultra vires.