§ Mr. BellinghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) what regulatory impact assessments have been carried out on the EU directives that came into force over the past 12 months; [185540]
(2) what regulatory impact assessments (a) have been and (b) will be made for those EU directives which will come into force over the next 12 months. [185538]
§ Mr. AlexanderI have been asked to reply.
In August 1998, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced that no proposal for regulation which has an impact on business, charities or the voluntary sector should be considered by Ministers without a regulatory impact assessment (RIA) being carried out. Where EU Directives impose significant costs on business, charities and the voluntary sector, RIAs are carried out to gain collective ministerial agreement for a negotiating line and RIAs accompany the explanatory memorandum produced for parliamentary scrutiny. Departments will then refocus the RIA when determining the options for implementing the directives.
In May 2004, I presented a Command Paper to Parliament, listing all the final regulatory impact assessments completed by Departments during the period 1 July-31 December 2003.