Departmental Regulation

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many regulations that impose costs on businesses his Department has (a) introduced and (b) removed since 1 September 2010; what the net effect on the costs on businesses of such introductions and removals was; and what regulations have been excluded from the one-in one-out system because they address (i) emergencies and (ii) systemic financial risks since 1 September 2010.

Answer

Four statutory instruments were made by the Department in the period September 2010 to June 2011 (inclusive) which imposed costs on business, charities or the voluntary or public sector. Of the four, three had an overall net benefit. The other imposed an overall net cost.Although it is not possible, except at disproportionate cost, to break down the costs as between business, charities and the voluntary or public sector for each of the instruments, I set out in the following table the four instruments giving general comments on whom, on the basis of the impact assessments prepared for the instruments, the costs were expected to fall.

Title	Comment	No	Origin	Net cost (£ million)	Net benefit (£ million)
Motor Fuel (Composition and Content) and Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Air Pollution from Ships) (Amendment) Regulations 2010	Cost mainly on suppliers	2010 No. 3035	EU	357	—
Mandatory Travel Concession (England) Regulations 2011	Costs on bus operators—benefits are to Government and travel concession authorities. There is a net cost to bus operators of £0.004 million	2011 No. 1121	Domestic	—	0.65
Airports Slot Allocation (Amendment) Regulations 2011	Costs to airports, savings to airlines and passengers	2011 No. 1610	Domestic	—	11.1
Cleaner Road Transport Vehicles Regulations 2011	Net costs to business are estimated to be small. Level of both costs and benefits very uncertain	2011 No. 1631	EU	—	421

In total, the four instruments have a net cost of £357 million and a net benefit of £432.75 million giving an overall net benefit of £75.75 million.Nine statutory instruments were revoked in their entirety during this period as were articles 4 to 7 of the Yarmouth (Isle of Wight) Harbour Revision (Constitution) Order 2001. The instrument making this latter change also repealed section 14 of the Pier and Harbour Orders (Cowes and Yarmouth (Isle of Wight) Confirmation Act 1931.Six of the measures revoked were originally made (or in the case of the 1931 Act, passed) before the system for publishing impact assessments was put in place. Providing further information in relation to the costs of these measures could only be done at disproportionate cost. The other five measures were made when the system of publishing impact assessments was in place but no impact assessment was prepared for them, so it may be assumed that these measures were thought to have no impact on business.Local and temporary instruments have not been considered for the purposes of answering this question as to do so would incur disproportionate costs.The one-in, one-out regulatory management system, although announced in September, did not come into force until January 2011.A list of regulatory measures introduced or removed in the first half of 2011 can be found in the Statement of New Regulation in the Libraries of the House.No regulations were excluded from the one-in one-out system because they addressed emergencies or systemic financial risks.