Enterprise Bill 2015
Part 2 of the Enterprise Bill seeks to bring regulators into the scope of the Business Impact Target (BIT) contained in the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015, which commits the government to assessing the economic impact on business activities of qualifying regulatory provisions and report on performance against a deregulatory target.
We are concerned that bringing the Commission within the scope of the BIT would constrain operational independence, which is a requirement for our continued accreditation as an ‘A’ status National Human Rights Institution and a National Equality Body for the purposes of European Union equality law. There are therefore very compelling exceptional reasons which warrant explicitly exempting the Commission from the scope of the proposals in this Bill and from the growth duty.
In addition we understand that secondary legislation specifying which regulators and regulatory activities will be covered by the Growth Duty has been delayed until next year. It is possible that the Government proposes to align the scope of the Growth Duty with that of the Regulators’ Code, which applies to the Commission. This briefing explains in more detail why we believe the Commission should be exempt from the BIT.
Last Updated: 07 Oct 2015