The Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC) is an independent body, sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

The Committee is formed of independent experts from a range of backgrounds, including the private and voluntary sectors, business, the legal profession, and academia.

The Committee’s opinion on the impact assessment (IA) for the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill states that the IA is “not fit for purpose” (and is red-rated). In the Committee’s view, the quality of different analytical areas in the IA “are all either weak or very weak, meaning that they provide inadequate support for decision-making”. The IA was also red-rated on its assessment of the impacts on small and micro businesses.

The Bill proposes sunsetting more than 2,400 pieces of retained EU legislation (REUL) on 31 December 2023, unless, before then, a departmental review proposes retention of, or changes to, the legislation, or delays the sunset until 2026. No impacts for changes to individual pieces of REUL have been assessed at this stage. The RPC says that it asked the BEIS to commit to assessing the impact of changed and “sunsetted” legislation for RPC scrutiny in the future, but the BEIS has not made a firm commitment to do so. The RPC opinion also highlights further areas for improvement in the IA.

As the independent Better Regulation watchdog, it is the RPC’s view that “those affected by regulatory change should reasonably expect the Government to properly consider the impacts of such changes”. The RPC says that it is not assured that the impact of changing or sunsetting each piece of REUL will be calculated or understood under proposals currently in place, particularly where no related secondary legislation is required. To access the RPC opinion, click here.