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If your proposal impacts solely on public services you will need to carry out an Initial Public Sector RIA. This will provide analysis of the impacts on public services and determine whether you should continue with the RIA process and develop a full RIA in the usual way.
The Initial Public Sector RIA should be carried out at the very beginning of policy thinking. Its purpose is to improve public service delivery, by thinking through at an early stage possible impacts on service delivery and the staff supporting it.
The Initial Public Sector 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 for each option to deliver the proposal, and will help you to identify areas where you need more information.
The Initial Public Sector RIA only differs from initial RIAs for proposals impacting on the private sector, charities and voluntary sectors in that:
An Initial Public Sector RIA should be completed for proposals that only impact on the Public Sector. For proposals which impact on both the private and public sectors, you can still use the costs and benefits section of the Initial Public Sector RIA to provide a useful analysis of public sector impacts to inform the costs and benefits section of the RIA.
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You should use the Initial Public Sector RIA template to structure your RIA.
You should refer to the main RIA guidance for all the sections in the Initial Public Sector RIA apart from for the cost calculation table. However, the Initial Public Sector RIA does not require a Small Firms Impact Test or competition assessment. If this is the first time you have written an RIA, you will find it helpful to look at the RIA flowchart and the Read this before starting your RIA section first.
Completing an Initial Public Sector RIA will help you determine whether a full RIA needs to be developed. This depends on whether your proposal meets the Threshold Criteria.
If a full RIA is required, your Initial Public Sector RIA will provide a useful basis for this and will also indicate areas where you may need further information.
You will need to identify all groups of staff affected by the policy changes, both within your immediate public service, and in any other interfacing public services where staff are providing related services. Calculations should be completed in respect of each identified group of staff. For example, a new policy initiative being introduced by the Department of Health on the care of elderly patients may affect GPs, hospital doctors and nurses in the NHS, and social services workers and administrative staff in local authorities. In this scenario, a breakdown of costs should be provided for each of the five identifiable groups of staff affected by the changes.
The total additional time it will take per person, in each sector affected, to implement and/or carry out your proposal should be calculated in hours per annum. This might include preparing for the introduction of the proposal, submitting information to demonstrate compliance, training etc. The total hours per annum per sector should be calculated, and then the sum of additional hours per annum for all relevant sectors recorded.
From this, the hourly cost per person in each sector affected should be estimated in pounds per annum through calculating the gross wage rate plus any non-wage labour costs, for example, National Insurance, pensions and other costs that vary with hours worked. The total staff cost per annum per sector should be calculated, and then the sum of additional costs per annum for all relevant sectors affected.
Non-staff costs should also be calculated. This might include e.g. IT installation costs, procurement costs, capital and so on
Costs for the first three years illustrate one-off implementation costs in year one as well as the ongoing/recurring costs of the proposal.
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When you have drafted your Initial Public Sector RIA you should apply it to the Threshold Criteria.
Criteria 1 provides a baseline figure of £5 million - if the total monetary cost of your proposal is greater than this, a full RIA must be undertaken. If your department has a fully functioning Gateway process, this baseline figure can be adapted in agreement with BRE
Criteria 2 is whether your proposal is likely to attract high levels of political or media interest. If so you must also then undertake a full RIA, even if the total cost is below £5 million.
| Initial Public Sector RIA outcome | Action |
|---|---|
| Where the proposal is unlikely to attract high levels of media or political interest and the monetary cost is less than the threshold figure. |
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| Where the proposal is likely to attract high levels of media or political interest and the monetary cost is greater than the threshold figure; or Where the proposal is likely to attract high levels of media or political interest and the monetary cost is less than the threshold figure; or Where the proposal is unlikely to attract high levels of media or political interest and the monetary cost is greater than the threshold figure. |
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Where a full RIA is not needed, we recommend that you attach the Initial Public Sector RIA to any submissions to your minister that seek agreement to initiatives or policy proposals. It will help your ministers to understand and explain, where necessary, why you have not carried out a full RIA.
Full RIAs carried out on proposals impacting solely on the public services do not require a Small Firms Impact Test or competition assessment. This is the only deviation from the RIA process. All other sections of the RIA must be completed as described in the main RIA guidance.
If this is the first time you have written an RIA, you should look at the RIA flowchart and the Read this before you starting your RIA section first.
RIAs for proposals impacting solely on the public services should still be included in formal consultation exercises. Full public sector RIAs must be signed-off, published, and put on departmental websites in the usual way. Please refer to the consultation section and Policy clearance section for further guidance.
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For further advice on how to carry out the Initial Public Sector RIA, please contact your departmental Better Regulation Unit (BRU ), departmental Gateway Team and Economists.
To find out who your BRU is contact the BRE on 0207 276 2353.
Principles of Good Practice
When carrying out an Initial Public Sector RIA, and at the earliest stage of policy thinking, you will need to follow these principles of good practice:
You should also refer to any further principles of best practice that your department has. Your BRU will be able to advise.
If your proposal impacts on local authorities, you should consider alternatives to regulation. For more information please see the Better Regulation Task Force report: Alternatives to Regulation [PDF 116KB, 12 pages] [External website].
Schedule 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 contains an extensive list of public authorities, and serves as a useful reference for departments. However, the list is not definitive and in case of doubt, you should contact your departmental legal advisors to discuss and determine the type of function.
A fully functioning Gateway is a process for managing the quality and quantity of policy initiatives issued to local delivery organisations by a central government department. A typical process is centralised within the department, integrates input from relevant stakeholders and staff, and incorporates a set of criteria to regulate standards and the proportionality of each initiative against business requirements. The Initial Public Sector RIA may be integrated with the Gateway criteria, with an adapted monetary threshold beyond which a full RIA is required, and tailored to the particular functions of the department. You must consult the BRE when the Gateway decides to set its own monetary threshold rather than use the BRE default one.
The Gateway process may be supplemented by other centralised processes for minimising burdens on local public services and their staff. A process for reducing unnecessary data requests from the front-line is one such example.
Your BRU can advise whether your department has a Gateway in place or any plans to create one.
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