Under the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015, a new government is required to set a target for the economic impact on business of qualifying regulatory provisions made during the course of the Parliament – this is the Business Impact Target (BIT).
The Enterprise Act 2016 introduced a statutory requirement on regulators, including Ofgem, to carry out assessments of the economic impact on business of qualifying regulatory provisions. These assessments contribute to the Business Impact Target.
Regulators must assess regulatory provisions to identify the ones that are qualifying regulatory provisions for assessment.
A “regulatory provision”, in relation to a business activity, means a provision which:
We use the BIT methodology as set by government to assess qualifying regulatory provisions. The BIT score is derived from the Equivalent Annual Net Direct Cost to Business (EANDCB) and rounded to the nearest £100,000. It is an estimation of the direct cost to businesses.
We submit our assessments to the Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC) for verification. The RPC is an independent body appointed by the government. Additionally, regulators must publish a summary of all regulatory provisions that are non-qualifying for the purposes of the BIT because they fall into an administrative exemption. These are non-qualifying regulatory provisions.
In order to meet our requirements for the reporting period 9 June 2017 – 20 June 2018, we are publishing: