HC Deb 15 October 2001 vol 372 cc859-60W
Barbara Follett

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what method he will use to update the Financial Services and Markets Act (Regulated Activities Order) 2001 to ensure that changes are made in such a way as to be easily comprehensible to the regulated community. [8120]

Ruth Kelly

The Government gave a commitment in the House of Commons during the passage of FSMA that there would at any time be a single RAO. This commitment could be interpreted as meaning that we should remake the RAO each time we needed to change it.

The normal practice when amending a statutory instrument is to make textual amendments only to the particular provisions affected, unless the changes are so substantial or widespread as to justify revoking the original instrument and re-making it (with amendments) in its entirety. Re-making the entire RAO every time we need to amend it (however minor the changes) would differ from that usual practice. From time to time we will need to adjust the RAO, for example to reflect developments in the market, or changes to European legislation. If we remade the entire RAO each time, this would impact on the numerous other Statutory Instruments, together with rules made by the Financial Services Authority, which refer to the RAO, and would be likely to necessitate consequential changes to these. The overall effect might be to make the body of law of which the RAO is a part less rather than more clear to the regulated community.

Another disadvantage of re-making the entire order is that it would be difficult for readers to tell readily what had changed. Each time the order was remade the general reader would have to buy the complete new version.

Having consulted the industry and received its general support, we intend following standard practice and amending the RAO rather than completely re-making it, for changes to the RAO that do not involve a wholesale revision of the order. This will reduce the number of consequential amendments to other legislation (including FSA rules) as compared to remaking the entire order. To aid users of the order further we will provide an "unofficial" consolidated version on the HMT website, which will give the up-to-date version of the complete order as amended, at any given time. We will consider re-making the RAO only in the event of a wholesale revision of the order, and in such circumstances we would then take the opportunity to consolidate earlier orders amending the RAO.