Department for Education: Regulation

(asked on 21st December 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the title was of each set of regulations introduced by her Department in each month since May 2010; which of those regulations have been (a) subject to the (i) one in one out and (ii) one in two out procedure and (b) (i) revoked and (ii) amended; and what the net cost to (A) the public purse; and (B) business of those regulations is.


Answered by
Nadhim Zahawi Portrait
Nadhim Zahawi
This question was answered on 12th January 2018

The attached spreadsheet lists every regulation introduced by the department since May 2010, ordered by year (see tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet), and indicates which of these regulations have been amended, and which have been revoked (including partial revocations and pending amendments).

As requested, these regulations have been ordered by month. In the absence of further instructions, they have been ordered by the month in which they came into force (commencement date).

The changes to regulations affecting business during the 2010-15 parliament made by the department, and the associated costs or savings, are recorded in ‘Statements of New Regulation’ that were published every six months. These are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/one-in-two-out-statement-of-new-regulation. During the 2010-15 parliament, the department made five changes to regulation which had a total cost to business of £2.8 million, and made 16 deregulatory changes which had a total saving to business of £13.54 million, a net saving of £10.74 million. Any costs arising for the public sector are calculated in line with the guidance in the ‘Better Regulation Framework Manual’.

For the 2015-17 Parliament, the government will shortly publish its final report on the savings to business delivered during that parliament. For the current parliament, the government is committed to maintaining a proportionate approach to regulation to enable business growth while maintaining public protections. This will be monitored through the target that the government is required to set under the ‘Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015’.

In line with the government’s Principles of Regulation, regulations are not introduced or amended unless the department has demonstrated that satisfactory outcomes cannot be achieved by alternative approaches, that the regulatory approach is substantially superior to alternative approaches, and that the regulation and its enforcement framework can be implemented in a proportionate, accountable, consistent, transparent and targeted manner.

The government has published guidance for departments on the statutory requirement that all new regulations contain a requirement for a review at a suitable point after their implementation. This can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/small-business-enterprise-and-employment-act-statutory-review-requirements. The department has issued advice to its officials to explain and reinforce the statutory guidance. The impact assessment for a new regulation should set out the plan for a post-implementation review of the measure, typically within five years of it coming into force. The review should assess if the objectives of the regulation were achieved, remain valid and relevant, and whether they could be achieved in a less burdensome way.

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