§ The Countess of Marasked Her Majesty's Government:
Which Government departments have required, or currently require, health impact assessments, as advocated by the BSE inquiry report 2000; and in respect of which of their policies. [HL2970]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Warner)The Government response to the BSE inquiry report stated that departments were expected to apply health impact assessments to all new key policies and that the Government had begun developing an integrated tool for screening and rapid assessment. This has now been subsumed within regulatory impact assessment (RIA) which is mandatory. RIA includes analysis of economic, social (including health), environmental and distributional effects of policy proposals. The social and environmental impact assessment elements of the RIA have recently been strengthened and new guidance issued to departments.