6 S.I.
2011/3037: Reported for unexpected delay
Cosmetic Products (Safety) (Amendment) Regulations
2011 (S.I. 2011/3037)
6.1 The Committee draws the special attention
of both Houses to these Regulations on the ground that there appears
to have been an unexpected delay in making them.
6.2 These Regulations were made on 19 December 2011,
laid before Parliament on 20 December 2011, and came into force
on 3 January 2012. There was therefore a contravention of the
21-day rule, whereby an instrument subject to annulment should
be laid before Parliament at least 21 days before it comes into
force.
6.3 This instrument amends the Cosmetic Products
(Safety) Regulations 2008 to reflect the enactment of a Commission
Directive which was published in the Official Journal on 14 May
2011 and required Member States to bring implementing legislation
into force by 3 January 2012. The Directive makes technical amendments
to a Council Directive, and this instrument makes the amendments
to the 2008 Regulations which are necessary to comply with that
amended Directive.
6.4 The Committee asked the Department for Business,
Innovation and Skills why the instrument was not made sooner.
6.5 In a memorandum printed at Appendix 6, the Department
states that during the summer and early autumn there were extensive
internal discussions as to whether the [amending] Directive would
lead to any costs to the industry. This led to delays in the submission
of the Impact Assessment to the Regulatory Policy Committee, whose
comments were received on 23 November. After further work on the
Impact Assessment the final papers were not available for the
Reducing Regulation Committee until December.
6.6 It is not the Committee's role to question or
comment on the Government's internal systems for considering the
impact of proposed legislation, and it does not propose to do
so. It does consider it strange, however, that such systems should
have such a delaying effect on a legislative amendment of a routine
nature which, as the Impact Assessment explains, the Government
was legally obliged to make. The Committee accordingly reports
these Regulations for an unexpected delay in their making.
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