§ Mr. David StewartTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will make a statement on his policy on the use of sunset clauses in legislation; and which Acts containing such clauses relevant to his Department were passed in each year since 1997. [149329]
§ Yvette CooperThe Office of the Deputy Prime Minister actively promotes the better regulation agenda, part of which is the use of sunset clauses where appropriate. Policy officials are aware of guidance that encourages them to consider time limiting (or "sunsetting") at an early stage of policy development 643W and gives specific circumstances where this may be appropriate. The form in which particular aspects of policy are embodied in legislation is a matter for careful consideration by Ministers, who are advised in this respect by officials in conjunction with lawyers and Parliamentary Counsel. The use of a sunset clause (as of any other type of clause) would be the result of such consideration.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was established on 29 May 2002, as a result of machinery of government changes. Since then, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is aware of just one sunset clause in primary legislation for which it is responsible, namely section 1(7) of the Fire Services Act 2003, which prevents the making of an order (fixing firemen's conditions of service) more than two years after commencement of the Act (on the date of Royal Assent, 13 November 2003) except for an order revoking a previous order.