Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an estimate of what the cost to businesses was of complying with EU regulations under each Government Department between 2001 and 2015; and how much and what proportion of those costs were from regulations which the UK was obligated to follow as a condition of its membership of the EU and which were deemed out of scope for repeal.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government does not hold this information centrally and on a fully comparable basis, as legislation to implement obligations arising from EU regulations, decisions and directives was exempt from the Better Regulation scrutiny process.
However, going forwards the Retained EU Law (REUL) programme and related departmental appraisals will seek to assess the costs to business from changes to REUL as it currently stands. This appraisal may provide suggestive evidence on retrospective costs prior to EU withdrawal.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an estimate of the proportion of regulatory costs to businesses which arose from their compliance with regulations that originated from the EU prior to the UK's withdrawal from the EU; and if he will place this information in the House of Commons Library.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The Government does not hold this information centrally and on a fully comparable basis, as legislation to implement obligations arising from EU regulations, decisions and directives was exempt from the Better Regulation scrutiny process.
However, going forwards the Retained EU Law (REUL) programme and related departmental appraisals will seek to assess the costs to business from changes to REUL.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 9 November to Question 75765 on Civil Service: EU Law, whether his Department uses the expression out of scope in relation to regulations that were previously unamendable owing to the UK’s membership of the EU.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy have defined retained EU law in scope of the sunset in clause 1 and 3 of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill. Any retained EU law that is primary legislation or amendments to primary legislation made by EU-derived subordinate legislation, will not be in scope of the sunset. The Bill provides for powers to amend retained EU law.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which EU regulations were identified in Departmental submissions made to his Department between 2001 and 2015 as incurring significant costs to businesses that were not able to be repealed due to the UK's membership of the EU.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
BEIS does not hold this information and we are not aware of it being gathered.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 9 November to Question 75765 on Civil Service: EU Law, what steps his Department have taken to identify EU-sourced regulations now removable post-Brexit by using as an indicator the expression out of scope.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
BEIS has defined retained EU law that is out of scope of the sunset in clause 1 and 3 of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill. Any retained EU law that is primary legislation or amendments to primary legislation made by EU-derived subordinate legislation, will not be in scope of the sunset.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will list the documents audited by his Department between 2001 and 2015, submitted by other Government departments, that included a bar chart entitled current assessment of business burdens, assessed by (a) overall cost (b) share of cost arising from EU sources.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
We are not aware of there ever having been a business burdens depository within BEIS and we are unable to account for across government.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will list the (a) directorates and (b) task forces in his Department which (i) initiated and (ii) conducted regulatory impact assessments of submissions by Government Departments in reviewing the regulatory costs and impact associated with new legislation.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
Each Government Department initiates and conducts its own regulatory impact assessments.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will list the regulatory impact assessments collated by his Department across Government between 2001 and 2015, to which Government Departments contributed individual assessments.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
All available regulatory impact assessments should be publicly accessible on legislation.gov.uk, alongside the relevant piece of legislation.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 9 November to Question 75765 on Civil Service: EU Law, how many documents held by his Department relating to past attempts at deregulation contain both the expressions out of scope and business burdens.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
We are not aware of there ever having been a business burdens depository within BEIS and we are unable to account for across government.
Departmental-wide information within BEIS on the number of individual documents which contain the phrase "out of scope" and "business burdens", and which relate to previous activity around reducing unnecessary business burdens, could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment has been made of the potential use of the civil service working expression out of scope as a reference search mechanism for identifying EU-sourced red tape that was formerly listed as out of bounds for review but may now be open to deregulatory review or repeal.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
Following the retained EU law (REUL) substance review and published dashboard, there is an ongoing cross-Whitehall exercise to identify how to reform REUL. Where REUL contains a regulation that directly impacts business, we provisionally expect it to contribute to the REUL target.
Before the sunset date, government departments and the devolved administrations will determine which REUL can be reformed to benefit the UK, which can expire, and which should be preserved in domestic law as assimilated law. They will also decide if some REUL should be codified, in order to preserve specific policy effects which are beneficial to keep.