HC Deb 24 January 1995 vol 253 c184W
Mr. McCartney

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment when the Construction (Designed Management) Regulations and approved code of practice will be approved; when they were submitted to him; and what factors were responsible for the length of the interval.

Mr. Oppenheim

The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 1994 were signed on 19 December 1994 and consent given to the code of practice, which was approved by the Health and Safety Commission on 3 January 1995. Both were submitted to the then Minister of State on 18 March 1994 and passed to me following the Cabinet changes on 20 July 1994.

Making new regulations is an important ministerial responsibility. It was necessary to be absolutely certain that this complex package of regulations was as fair and reasonable as possible and this inevitably took time.