Making an Impact on slashing regulation burden

This improves on the previous Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA), with a simpler, more transparent process that will be embedded in the earliest stage of policy making. The new arrangements will begin from mid-May and all IAs will be available from an online database, making them easily available for public scrutiny. IAs are a key tool for making modern regulation that is proportionate to the issue it is designed to tackle. In some cases, RIAs have been very successful at achieving this, but weaknesses in the process have led to inconsistency in its application. Following a public consultation, the new IAs will have a more prominent role in policy-making, be more transparent and build on the successes of RIAs. “Regulations protect people from serious risks to their health and livelihoods, but the cost of implementing them should be kept as low as possible,” says Cabinet Office Minister Pat McFadden. “The new Impact Assessments will mean clearer guidelines for policy makers and an insistence that the Impact Assessment is conducted early in the development of regulation. This should help ensure that burdens are minimised.”