§ Mr. Stephen O'BrienTo ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if he will make a statement on the monitoring of the(a) quality and (b) thoroughness of regulatory impact assessments. [160135]
§ Mr. AlexanderCabinet Office Regulatory Impact Unit (CORIU) continues to work with departments to ensure that Regulatory Impact Assessments (RIAs) are consistent with the most recent guidance. From April this year departments will have to provide information on better regulation, including their compliance with the RIA process and their use of RIAs, as part of their annual reporting requirements,
The National Audit Office (NAO) has undertaken an ongoing role to evaluate the quality and thoroughness of a sample of RIAs each year. The recently published NAO Compendium Report on the Evaluation of RIAs for 2003–04 noted that the CORIU has achieved significant progress in increasing the quality of RIAs.