HC Deb 19 July 1994 vol 247 c184W
Mr. Lidington

To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a further statement about the arrangements for publishing compliance cost assessments to show the cost impact on business of complying with legislative proposals.

Mr. Neil Hamilton

Further to the answer I gave in my written reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Colchester, North (Mr. Jenkin) on 19 October 1993,Official Report, column 202, the Government have revised the arrangements for publishing compliance cost assessments for domestic legislative proposals which impact on business as follows: in the case of Government Bills, a summary of the CCA will form part of the Explanatory Memorandum to the Bill and will include a reference to where the full CCA can be obtained. in the case of Statutory Instruments, the Explanatory Note will contain a note that a CCA is available and where it can be obtained. in the case of Private Members' Bills, where the Government considers it is appropriate to prepare a CCA every effort will be made to produce it by the date first set down for second reading of the Bill. in the case of Private Bills the Government are still considering how the system can be extended to such Bills.

In all cases, a copy of the CCA will be available in the Libraries of both Houses. Copies will also be made available to the Vote Office and/or the Printed Paper Office for selected pieces of draft legislation, and to Committees considering Bills or statutory instruments where the Government judge it to be appropriate. The Government will also publish a command paper at six-monthly intervals to place on record those CCAs published over the preceding six month period and where they can be obtained.