§ Mr. SteenTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many pages have been added to tax legislation as a result of the Finance Acts enacted since 1997; and what estimate he has made of the cost to business of implementing each amendment to tax law contained in those acts. [139821]
§ Dawn Primarolo[holding answer 27 November 2000]: The respective lengths of Finance Acts enacted since 1997 are contained in the House of Commons Library.
Some of the legislation has the effect of removing previous legislation, so the net length impact is significantly shorter than the combined face total of these Finance Acts.
Regulatory Impact Assessments were introduced by this Government in August 1998 to replace Compliance Cost Assessments; these set out the costs and benefits of proposals that have a significant regulatory impact on business, are published for Finance Act measures and are published on departmental websites.