Background briefing
Briefing on Statutory Instruments issued in 2003

Claim : "There is an astonishing average of 15 new government regulations every day"

Response: In 2003 3,926 Statutory Instruments (SIs) – sometimes described as "new regulations" – were approved by the UK Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and the Scottish Executive.

• The UK Parliament approved 3,033, the National Assembly for Wales approved 321 SIs; and the Scottish Executive approved 622 SIs.
• Over 90% of Statutory Instruments had little or no substantial impact on business.
• Approximately 1,570 (39% of all SIs) implemented temporary, local road speed limits or traffic restrictions to enable road building, repairs and improvement schemes to proceed; or covered air navigation orders.
• Around 200 SIs were issued by the Department of Health in 2003 related to Primary Care and NHS trusts; and health related issues.
• Social security and social care accounted for 93 SIs.
• SIs relating to education accounted for 130 SIs.
  

SIs were issued to:

Provide tax relief for investments made by individuals and companies in community development finance institutions which invest in enterprises for disadvantaged communities.

Provide for a voucher system in respect of costs of eye care.

Provide for children to be entitled to free school lunches where their parents are in receipt of Child Tax Credit in defined circumstances.

Pay grants for housing purposes, agricultural businesses, local community groups, conservation work, individual learning accounts, energy efficiency, organic farmers and disabled postgraduate students

Provide for pensions and other awards in respect of disablement or death due to service in the naval, military and air forces.

Increase the rates and amounts of certain pensions and allowances.

Increase the salaries and allowances of school teachers.

Provide for the over-80s to receive an additional £100 by way of winter fuel payment; and an additional winter fuel payment of £50 for the over-80s in residential care.

Provide for allowances to encourage businesses to invest in environmentally beneficial plant and machinery.

Provide free vouchers towards spectacle and contact lens costs for those in receipt of pension credit guarantee and members of their families.

Extend exemption from VAT to welfare services supplied by state-regulated private welfare agencies.

Control disease.

Provide for paternity leave and statutory paternity pay.

Provide for pilot schemes for the provision of local pharmaceutical services.

Provides for the implementation of the 1993 Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption.

Create new money laundering offences; creates new powers of investigation.

Establish Local Health Boards.

Monitor welfare provision to all schools and colleges of further education which provide accommodation for young people.

Provide environmental impact assessments ("EIAs") for water management projects for agriculture that would be likely to have significant effects on the environment.

Tighten rules on conduct of elections and return of members to the National Assembly for Wales and other related matters.

Provide for fixed penalty notices to be issued to users of vehicles who contravene or fail to comply with regulations on emissions.

Provide for the registration of voluntary adoption agencies.

Provide for the inspection by the National Care Standards Commission of voluntary adoption agencies.

Provide for free board and lodging for children on residential trips and Child Tax Credit in defined circumstances.

Provide for the regulation of the civil nuclear industry for security purposes.

Protect children and vulnerable adults.

Enforce proceeds of crime measures.

Establish the Health Protection Agency.

Provide for compulsory licensing for London taxi drivers.

Fund employers’ liabilities to make payments of statutory maternity pay.

Provide for the compulsory labelling of household air conditioners to show their energy consumption.

Set the safety rules and standards for passenger ships.

Provide for the implementation of EC principles governing the organisation of veterinary checks on food products entering the Community from third countries to ensure food safety.

Provide new rights covering paternity and adoption leave in the case of adoptions from overseas.

Extend bus services providing half fare concessions to the over-60s.

Set up the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.

Provide for the safe handling and use of ammonium nitrate material.

Provide for a safety regime for fishing vessels.

Provide for more stringent voter identification procedures.

Tighten conditions for the quarantining of imported plants.

Provide for the stopping of down rating of specified benefits immediately a person enters hospital to receive free in-patient treatment after living in local authority-managed accommodation.

Control substances under the Misuse of Drugs Act, 1971.

Extend the offence of rape to rape of another man and abolition of the presumption that a boy of under 14 is incapable of sexual intercourse.

Provide for means to prevent funds being acquired by terrorists.

Provide for penalties to be paid where the Enterprise Act 2002 (regarding competition) is contravened.

Restrict the sale of food supplements to consumers.

Provide for safe carriage of dangerous goods.

Provide for the addition of six substances to be subject to control under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations, 2001.

Provide for the implementation of measures concerning animal by-products not intended for human consumption.

Prohibit the holding or dealing in any item of illegally removed Iraqi cultural property.

Revoke the prohibition on exports to Iraq and Kuwait to be revoked.

Enable people of the qualifying age for state pension credit to make various claims.

Tighten regulations against discriminating on the grounds of disability in employment.

Provide for better management of care homes.

Provide for the making of a payment of up to £81,793,375 as a further contribution to the African Development Fund.

Provide for the availability of home responsibilities protection for foster parents.

Ensure the safe transport of food.

Carry out coast protection work.

Increase home loss payments for those who are compulsorily displaced from their homes.

Provide free milk for certain pregnant women under certain conditions.

Provide for the safe transport of radioactive material.

Reduce the repayment of amounts owing in respect of student loans for newly qualified and employed teachers.

Ensure that purchasers of timeshares are given information about their rights to cancel.

Increase in the minimum hourly rate of the national minimum wage from £4.20 to £4.50 (and from £3.60 to £3.80 for 18-21 year olds).

Provide for certain categories of motor vehicle to be fitted with speed limiters and for effective penalties in cases of non-compliance to be applied.

Provide for the safe import of certain problematic foodstuffs (in these examples peanuts from China and Brazil Nuts from Brazil).

Ensure detailed product labelling informing consumers about meat products.

Provide for a grant of up to £18,531,000 to the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

Prevent funds reaching suspected terrorists.

Remove certain restrictions on payment of Attendance and Disability Living Allowances.

Provide for the packaging of certain medicinal products in containers that are child resistant.

Provide for those on certain benefits or on a low income to be reimbursed for travel expenses incurred in obtaining certain NHS services and to be exempt from charges.

Prohibit the delivery/supply of arms and related material and the provision of assistance, advice and training related to military activities in DRC (Congo).

Prohibit the use of a mobile phone while driving, and while supervising a holder of a provisional licence.

Provide for the making of begging and touting for hire car services illegal.

Provide for men to be registered as the fathers of children conceived after their deaths using their sperm using their sperm either before or after their deaths.

The revised Regulatory Reform Action Plan - now with 650 measures of which over 400 have been delivered - commits Government departments to better regulation – legislating only where necessary, doing so in a light touch and deregulating wherever possible. It will benefit business, charities and public services. The reforms outlined in the plan must also meet the five principles of good regulation – that they are transparent, accountable, consistent, targeted and proportionate. The measures range from simplifying overly complex fire safety legislation to speeding up the planning process system; and freeing up schools to innovate".

In his foreword to the 2003 edition of "Better Policy Making: A Guide to Regulatory Impact Assessment" the Prime Minister said "Where regulations or alternative measures are introduced, this should be done in a light touch way, with decisions informed by a full regulatory impact assessment, which includes details of not only the obvious costs and benefits of the proposal but also the wider economic, social and environmental impacts. New regulations should only be introduced when other alternatives have first been considered and rejected, and where the benefits justify the costs".