GovWire

The RPCs opinion covers five published IAs relating to different components of the Bill. They were submitted for RPC scrutiny two days before the Bill was introduced to Parliament. Consequently, although we conducted our scrutiny as quickly as possible, it could not be completed until after royal assent was given to the Bill. The opinion has been published to ensure that the normal set of legislative documentation is available.

The RPC found that the IAs are not fit for purpose and are, therefore, red-rated. The Bill contained a range of measures, only some of which are in scope of the Better Regulation Framework (BRF, which covers regulations affecting businesses but not taxation or spending proposals). Our red-rating relates only to those parts of the IAs that we consider to be in scope of the BRF. But, as is our normal practice, we offer comments on how we think other aspects of the IAs might be improved.

As the opinion sets out, we expect the Department to produce further IAs, as appropriate, for the secondary legislation enabled by the Act. We hope that the comments in our opinion will assist with the preparation of those IAs, to ensure they are compliant with requirements set out in the BRF.