§ Mr. Peter AtkinsonTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will list those compliance cost assessments published during the latest six month period. [21644]
§ Mr. FreemanSince April 1993, the Government have required Departments to prepare and publish compliance cost assessments with all proposed legislation presented to Parliament to assess the impact on business costs. This includes a special test of the impact on small businesses. Since January 1996, the responsible Minister has had to certify that he has seen the CCA and is satisfied that the regulatory proposal strikes the appropriate balance between cost and benefit.
I have presented to Parliament today a Command Paper—Cmd 3593—listing 101 CCAs published between 1 July 1996 and 31 December 1996 plus two CCAs published in June 1996 which were omitted from the previous Command Paper. Copies of the CCAs listed are available in the Libraries of the House. This is the sixth such Command Paper.