The Department's response to our
report
13. The Department's explanatory statement does not
specifically respond to the findings of our previous report. The
explanatory statement is required to be laid under section 8(5)
of the Regulatory Reform Act; this provides that the explanatory
statement must give details of any changes made to the draft order
in light of any representations made during the period for Parliamentary
consideration, including any resolution or report of this Committee.
Our previous report did not, of course, require any change to
be made to the draft order. Nevertheless, given that our analysis
of the burden that would be removed if the draft order is made
differs from the Department's initial analysis, we would have
expected the explanatory statement to address this discrepancy,
by indicating whether or not the Department accepts our analysis
and, if not, why not. In the absence of such comment, we cannot
be certain whether the Minister accepts our analysis of the burden
that would be removed by the draft order, or whether she holds
to the Department's initial analysis.
14. Consequently, we are not satisfied that the explanatory
statement elucidates the object of the draft order in terms of
section 1(1) of the Regulatory Reform Act. Nevertheless, as
indicated below, we are content for the draft order to be approved,
on the basis of our analysis of the burden that the draft order
would remove, if made, as set out in our previous report on the
proposal for the draft order.
15. We take this opportunity to indicate to government
departments that we find it helpful if the explanatory statement
accompanying the draft order positively demonstrates that the
department concerned has considered the points raised in our earlier
report, if any. In such cases, we would welcome the inclusion
in the explanatory statement of some comment additional to a summary
of the findings of our previous report.
Other representations
16. The Department states, in the explanatory statement,
that it is not aware of any other representations made during
the period for Parliamentary consideration.
Recommendation
17. In accordance with Standing Order No. 141(15),
we recommend unanimously that the draft order be approved.
5 Regulatory Reform Committee, Thirteenth Report of
Session 2001-02, Proposal for the Regulatory Reform (Sugar
Beet Research and Education) Order 2003, HC 1247, Appendix
B Back
