Cabinet Office

Ensure departments deliver better regulation through:

1. full compliance with the RIA process; and
2. delivering the commitments in the Regulatory Reform Action Plan, including over 60 Regulatory Reform Orders by 2005 (Objective 2)

Information on regulatory proposals is collected from departments by the Regulatory Impact Unit (RIU) on the Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) stage (initial, partial and full) and the stages of policy development.

The stages in policy development can be aggregated into distinct phases:

• Consultation (green paper, white paper, consultation)
• Post-consultation (draft regulations/bill, parliament, issue guidance, in force/implemented)

These phases can be compared to the RIA stage to give an indication of compliance.

We propose to measure compliance with the RIA process by comparing the stage reached in the development of the RIA with the actual stage reached in the policy making process. The measurement will look at

• all proposals that require an RIA
• proposals that meet the RIA test for significance

Significant measures are those

• imposing high costs (over £20 million)
• of a topical nature
• of interest to the Task Force
• with a disproportionate impact on a particular business sector, type of business or region

Compliance will be measured at the consultation phase. This will give two quantitative indicators:

• RIAs classified as either ‘partial’ or ‘full’ for all measures at the consultation phase (as a percentage of RIAs required at this phase).
• RIAs classified as either ‘partial’ or ‘full’ for significant measures at the consultation phase (as a percentage of RIAs required at this phase)

The Quality of RIAs is also to be assessed in an annual retrospective review of a sample of completed impact assessments. The qualitative measurement compliance will be done by assessing an RIA against a set of 9 indicators of quality. These are purpose, risk, options, costs and benefits, equity, small business, consultation, compliance review, and recommendation and have been derived from the five principles of better regulation (Transparency, Accountability, Proportionality, Consistency and Targeting). They are assessed by experienced RIU staff, depending on how well an issue has been addressed in the RIA.

This type of analysis will also enable RIU to identify problem areas in the provision of information in RIAs so that we can tailor training and guidance for departments to improve quality. The revised RIA guidance for policy makers reflects the quality indicators.

Progress on compliance with the RIA process and the Regulatory Reform Action Plan will be reported on Cabinet Office website at http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/regulation/

Improve public services by working with departments to help them meet their PSA targets, consistent with the fiscal rules. (This is a joint target with HM Treasury.)
(Objective 3)

Improve public services by working with departments to help them meet their PSA targets, consistent with the fiscal rules. Target is shared with Treasury.

Departments are responsible for delivering their individual 2002 Spending Review (SR2002) Public Service Agreement (PSA) targets.

The success of Treasury (HMT) and Cabinet Office's Delivery Unit (DU) in meeting their joint PSA target is measured by the percentage of PSA targets assessed as met by departments.

Data on whether departmental PSA targets have been met is provided by departmental assessments, and collated to establish the level of progress against all departmental targets. This is the key measure for HMT/DU performance against their joint PSA target. The data systems underlying performance against PSA targets are externally validated.

The data underlying this PSA target depends on the collation of the data of the other PSA targets to which this target refers.