Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) overview
The initial, partial and full/final Regulatory Impact Assessment
You must start your RIA as early as possible so that it is an integral part of the policy making process. The RIA process is a continuous one and will develop with your policy. It consists of three phases:
- Initial RIA - You should prepare this as soon as a policy idea is generated. For policies which will only impact on public services you should carry out an Initial Public Sector RIA
- Partial RIA - This builds on the initial RIA. It is produced prior to the consultation exercise and must accompany the consultation document.
- Full/final RIA - This builds on the information and analysis in the partial RIA and incorporates consultation responses and how they have influenced policy. You must prepare a full RIA for the post-consultation collective agreement and, if it is a legislative proposal, for the Parliamentary process.
You should seek advice from specialists such as economists, statisticians and scientists as early as possible in the RIA process. To gather enough evidence, you may even need to commission research. Thoroughly planning the RIA - including information on implementation and deliverywill help ensure the success of the policy.
Initial RIA
The initial RIA should inform and ideally accompany your submission to your own ministers seeking agreement to a proposal. It should include your best estimates of the possible risks, benefits and costs, and will help you to identify areas where you need more information.
An initial RIA should:
- provide a clear statement of the high level policy objectives - what it is you want your policy to achieve
- describe the issue and, where possible, quantify the scale of the issue you want to address
- identify a range of regulatory and non-regulatory alternative options, including 'do nothing'.
- consider the pros and cons of each option and the fit with existing requirements on the relevant sector
- identify who is affected, including business sectors and groups on which there may be a disproportionate impact.
- set out what you already know about the costs and benefits
- highlight any potential unintended consequences
- try to identify markets that may be affected and flag up any potential competition issues
- consider how to secure compliance and how you will review whether the policy is.
Partial RIA
The partial RIA builds on the initial RIA. The partial RIA must be submitted with any proposal needing collective agreement from Cabinet, Cabinet Committees, No 10 or other interested ministers. It must also accompany the public consultation. It should be informed by more discussions, data gathering and informal consultations. You will have refined your cost and benefit estimates. You will also have worked up the options and developed your thinking on implementation and delivery, enforcement, compliance and monitoring. This is very important, as it will be too late to cover these issues meaningfully if left until the full RIA stage.
A partial RIA should:
- provide a clear statement of the policy objectives and the issue
- describe and quantify the scale of the issue you want to address
- identify regulatory and non-regulatory options
- consider the pros and cons of each option and the fit with existing requirements on the relevant sector
- include high level implementation and delivery plans for each option.
- identify who is affected, including the business sectors and groups on which there may be a disproportionate impact.
- estimate the benefits and costs and identify the key risks associated with each option
- highlight any potential unintended consequences
- include the outcome of the Small Firms Impact Test
- provide a competition assessment that includes a clear statement of anticipated competition impacts for each option
- consider options for enforcement, sanctions and monitoring of each policy option and how the risk factors identified would affect this
Full/final RIA
The full RIA builds upon the analysis in the partial RIA. You must update your RIA in the light of consultation and further information and analysis. You will also need to set out a detailed implementation and delivery plan as well as plans for post-implementation review for the recommendation option. You must consider how the policy option will be delivered and reviewed before a final decision is made.
You can then submit the full RIA to ministers with clear recommendations.
It becomes a final RIA when it is signed by the responsible minister and placed in the libraries of the Houses of Parliament.
The full RIA will accompany legislation when it is presented to Parliament. It must also be published on your departmental website.
Implementation of European legislation is usually via a UK legislative route, so your minister will need to sign off the full RIA.
A full/final RIA should:
- identify the policy objectives
- identify and quantify the scale of the issue you want to address
- describe the remaining options, explaining how each option would fit with existing requirements and describe the key risks associated with the options, and how these can be mitigated
- identify who is affected, including the business sectors and groups on which there may be a disproportionate impact.
- compare the benefits and costs for each option considered in the partial RIA
- consider and record separately the 'other' costs and benefits - i.e. not just those to the public sector, firms, charities and the voluntary sector but also to consumers/individuals and to the economy at large, taking account of the economic, social and environmental effects. Record these costs separately from the costs to business, charities and the voluntary sector
- summarise who or what sectors bear the costs and benefits of each option
- address any unintended consequences and indirect costs
- include details of the Small Firms Impact Test and any comments from the Small Business Service
- summarise the impacts, including the impact of each option on small firms and any measures for helping them comply
- include a simple or detailed competition assessment according to the result of the filter test
- set out the enforcement arrangements for securing compliance with each of the proposed options, as well as a consideration of the risks involved.
- set out how you would communicate the changes the each option would bring including any guidance you will need to produce
- set out how the policy will be monitored
- summarise the results of the consultation exercise, responses received from different sectors or types of business and set out any changes you have made to the RIA such as to the assumptions, costings and recommendations following consultation
- include a detailed implementation and delivery plan for the option you are recommending
- include detailed plans for post-implementation review
- recommend a preferred option, giving reasons based on the elements of the RIA, in particular the analysis of the benefit and costs
