Select Committee on Deregulation Ninth Report


ANNEX

Letter from the Clerk of the Committee to the Senior Executive Officer, LACOTS

Quality Systems

We note that you raised a number of concerns in your response to the consultation exercise relating to the specified quality system requirements for applicants to become self-verifiers. You draw attention to a number of ways in which the involvement of local authority inspectors in the approval of quality systems should be more tightly specified in the proposed Order. In addition you note that the application of the proposed quality systems is limited to "end product inspection and test" and that there is no formal link with the production process.

The Department states that the standards required for quality systems will be the same for applicants both within and outside Great Britain. The Committee would like to know whether you are satisfied that the specified standards will be the same.

Implications for Local Government

We also note that all three elements of the proposed Order were expected to have financial implications for local authorities. The Department reports that it held talks with ITSA and LACOTS on this point, and that agreement was reached to transfer funds from the Department of Trade and Industry to the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions to offset losses in income from inspections and some added administrative costs.

We would like to know what impact you believe the proposed Order would have on local government inspection bodies.

12 June 1998


 
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