Introduction
1. On 13 April 2005, our predecessor Committee issued
a report into the 2004 Pre-Budget Report and the 2005 Budget which
examined issues of appraisal and regulation, looking at Regulatory
Impact Assessments (RIAs) in some depth. The report recommended
that the National Audit Office (NAO) carry out an analysis, on
the Committee's behalf, assessing how accurately departments were
identifying and incorporating environmental concerns into RIAs.[1]
The resulting NAO briefing document, published in May 2006, examined
in detail the extent to which RIAs took account of sustainable
development principles, and examined the potential of RIAs for
advancing the sustainable development agenda.[2]
The conclusions of the document persuaded the current Committee
of the need to further pursue the issue, and we agreed to hold
a short inquiry into RIAs in Autumn 2006.
2. The purpose of the inquiry was to establish what
progress had been made since the predecessor Committee's report
of April 2005, and to examine the issue of sustainable development
and RIAs in more detail, building upon the assessment provided
by the NAO. The inquiry was also intended to complement our continuing
investigation of the Government's progress in 'greening' government
and implementing the principles of sustainable development.
3. We launched the inquiry into RIAs on 24 July 2006,
the same day that the Better Regulation Executive (BRE) launched
its own consultation into the very same issue.[3]
We received 12 memoranda from organisations including the Sustainable
Development Commission and various academic groups. We also received
an informal briefing from DTI officials and from the Impact Assessment
Research Centre at the University of Manchester. Oral evidence
was taken from the Environmental Industries Commission (EIC),
Anglian Water Services Limited, the Office of Gas and Electricity
Markets (Ofgem) and Friends of the Earth. We are grateful to all
those who submitted evidence or appeared before us. We are particularly
grateful to the NAO for its invaluable briefing document on the
topic which provided us with a comprehensive and revealing insight
into the consideration of sustainable development in RIAs.
1 Environmental Audit Committee, Seventh Report of
Session 2004-05, Pre-Budget 2004 and Budget 2005: Tax, Appraisal
and the Environment, HC 261 paragraph 68. Back
2
National Audit Office, Regulatory Impact Assessments and Sustainable
Development - Briefing for the Environmental Audit Committee,
May 2006, This document can be found at http://www.nao.org.uk/publications/nao_reports/05-06/ria_sustainable.pdf
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Better Regulation Executive, The Tools to Deliver Better Regulation
- A Consultation Document, The document can be found at http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/regulation/documents/ria/pdf/consultation.pdf
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