Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what criteria are employed by departments when deciding whether or not to undertake an impact assessment on (1) primary egislation, (2) secondary legislation, and (3) other new policies.

The Cabinet Office’s Guide to Making Legislation sets out that an impact assessment is generally required for any primary legislation that is of a regulatory nature that affects the private sector and/or civil society organisation or public services.

Guidance for government departments on undertaking these regulatory impact assessments is published online: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/better-regulation-framework This covers policies that have a regulatory impact on businesses or civil society organisations. The better regulation framework requires departments to produce a regulatory impact assessment if the annual net impacts of a measure are greater than £5 million a year.

Where a policy does not have a regulatory impact over £5 million a year, departments should still consider undertaking an impact assessment in order to support Parliamentary scrutiny. The Chief Analyst in each department is responsible for providing direction on the production of these impact assessments. Where an impact assessment is not produced, Departments must still develop appropriate analysis to inform policy development and decision-making.