Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill: late submission of impact assessment
RPC statement about the Department for Business and Trade’s late submission of an impact assessment relating to the Bill
The Regulatory Policy Committee (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 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 be able to issue an opinion before the relevant legislation is laid before Parliament.
The Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill was introduced to Parliament, recalled from Easter recess to consider the Bill. As an emergency Bill, it completed all stages (both Houses), was given Royal Assent and came into force, in one day – Saturday, 12 April 2025. The Act makes provision to ensure continued operation of a critical national industry. The Government needed to act with urgency to ensure that the steelworks blast furnaces of British Steel were maintained and kept going. Given the emergency nature of the legislation, an IA was not produced at that time. Instead, the Department submitted an IA for RPC scrutiny on 3 November 2025. The RPC is currently reviewing the IA (which has not yet been published) and will produce an opinion when its scrutiny has been completed. This will be made available to the Government and Parliament and published on the RPC’s website, when this statement will be updated.