Ensure your consultation follows better regulation best practice, including carrying out a Regulatory Impact Assessment if appropriate.

Ensure your consultation follows better regulation best practice, including carrying out a Regulatory Impact Assessment if appropriate.

1. When consulting on a review of a policy area, ensure consideration is given to opportunities for reducing bureaucracy and regulatory burdens, for example simplification or repeal of existing regulations.
2. Ensure that a Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) is attached, where required, highlighting the costs, benefits and risks of the proposal. Respondents should be encouraged to comment on and challenge the assumptions in the RIA where one is included. For more guidance on RIAs please see http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/regulation/scrutiny/betterpolicy.htm
3. Consider alternatives to regulations, such as voluntary codes, and encourage respondents to suggest alternatives when responding to the consultation exercise.
4. Consider any unintended consequences of the proposal and ask respondents to highlight these in their response.
5. When consulting, ensure that you ask about the practical enforcement and implementation issues of your policy, including asking respondents for alternative approaches to implementation. For guidance on implementation issues please see http://www.sbs.gov.uk/content/pdf/implementationguidelines.pdf
6. More generally, seek to ensure that the Principles of Good Regulation are followed whenever policy is being developed. These are: proportionality; accountability; consistency; transparency; and targeting.
7. For more information about these and their application, please see

http://www.brtf.gov.uk/taskforce/reports/entry%20pages/principlesentry.htm