The RPC produces opinions of impact assessments (IAs) to help departments ensure that the evidence and analysis in them is sufficiently robust. Our independent opinion assists ministerial decision making and parliamentary scrutiny of regulatory proposals. We publish these to assist parliamentarians and to ensure that they are available to external stakeholders. Government departments are expected to submit IAs to the RPC in time for the RPC to issue an opinion before the relevant legislation is laid before Parliament.
The Water (Special Measures) Bill was introduced to Parliament on 4th September 2024. An IA has not been published alongside the Bill and the RPC has not received an IA from Defra for scrutiny.
When we receive an IA from Defra, we will produce and publish our opinion as soon as possible. This will be made available to Government and Parliament and published on our website. We will update this statement at that time.
