The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels: Passenger Railway Services) Regulations 2023: Statement from the RPC
Regulatory Policy Committee statement on the impact assessment for The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels: Passenger Railway Services) Regulations 2023
Updated 20th December
The RPC has now completed its assessment of the IA and has issued its opinion to DfT. In accordance with our previous statement on this IA we now publish our opinion here to ensure it is made available to Parliament as well as to the Government.
Updated 6th December
The revised impact assessment (IA) has now been published (4 December). This is currently being scrutinised by the RPC and our opinion will be issued to the Department and published on our website when scrutiny has been completed.
Original statement 7th November
The RPC produces opinions of impact assessments (IAs) to help departments ensure that the evidence and analysis in them is sufficiently robust. We provide an independent opinion to assist final 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 Strikes (Minimum Service Levels: Passenger Railway Services) Regulations 2023 were laid before Parliament in draft on 7 November 2023. An IA has not been published alongside the Statutory Instrument (SI).
The IA for the SI was first submitted on 12 October for RPC scrutiny. The RPC’s initial review of the IA, sent to the Department for Transport (DfT) on 1 November, found that it was not sufficiently robust, and identified areas where improvements should be made. We considered that the points raised would have generated a red-rated opinion, if not addressed adequately. A revised IA was submitted by DfT on 7 November (the same day as the draft legislation was laid before Parliament). The RPC is currently reviewing this and will produce an opinion as soon as possible. Our opinion will be made available to Government and Parliament and published on our website as soon as it is complete.