§ Mr. PriskTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many regulations her Department has proposed to Parliament since June; what regulatory impact assessments have been made for those regulations her Department has implemented in 2001; and what plans her Department has to reduce the number of regulations affecting small businesses. [21974]
§ Mr. Ivan LewisThe Department has laid 89 regulations before Parliament since June; during the same period, no regulatory impact assessments have been made for those regulations, but a total of four regulatory impact assessments have been made for 2001 so far, and these were for the following regulations:
- The Industrial Training Levy (Construction Board) Order 2001
- The Industrial training Levy (Engineering Construction Board) Order 2001
- The Day Care and Childminding (National Standards) (England) Regulations 2001
- The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001.
Following the machinery of Government changes in June, policies for which the Department is responsible only impact directly on the private sector (including small businesses) within a limited number of discrete areas. Consequently, the Department's Regulatory Reform Action Plan, which will form part of the forthcoming Government-wide Plan, focuses mainly on measures to remove and simplify existing burdens on front-line delivery services within the public sector.