Supplementary memorandum from the Cabinet
Office
THE OPERATION OF THE REGULATORY REFORM ACT
2001 (RRA)
In my letter to you of 19 December 2003, I committed
to updating your Committee on developments with the Regulatory
Reform Act 2001. I am grateful for your officials' agreement to
extend the deadline for this report from April to July 2004.
Much work has been done in recent months to
increase the use of RROs, and I am pleased that we are making
progress on both the number of RROs laid and made, and the size
of measures being brought forward. Since I wrote to you in December
2003 my officials and I have been actively promoting the Act and
the reforms it can achieve.
Regulatory reform orders were included in the
Queen's Speech for the first time this year, and I spoke at a
cross-party seminar of MPs in January about the better regulation
agenda, with particular focus on the Act and RROs. We have established
an inter-departmental legal working group for regulatory reform,
and all Departments are now expected to report on RROs in their
Annual Reports. My officials have met the Chief Executive of the
Law Commission to discuss how RROs can be used to implement Law
Commission reforms. They have also revised and relaunched the
full guidance on RROs in March, and at the same time published
a Quick Guide to RROs.
My officials hold regular wash-up sessions with
Departments to discuss the RRO process and have also had constructive
discussions with both your officials and with those of the Delegated
Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee whenever problems have
arisen with RROs. I am sure all this work has raised the profile
of RROs and over time will help us assess the full possibilities
of the Act.
I am grateful for the support of the Committee,
and the constructive debates on the RRO programme we have had
thus far. I know that my officials have also found discussions
with the Committee clerks helpful and I look forward to continuing
that dialogue when we meet later in the year.
I am copying this letter to the Prime Minister,
Regulatory Reform Ministers, Lord Dahrendorf and Sir Andrew Turnbull.
Douglas Alexander
22 July 2004
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