Mr. Gerard Keown:

The Department is required to prepare a regulatory impact assessment, which is an assessment required for all legislation. That regulatory impact assessment is currently in preparation. It is required to look at the potential impacts that legislation may have in a number of domains, direct and indirect. It will, therefore, need to look at a wide range of factors as to what the impact might be on the political objectives set by the Government for the legislation. We will need to look at how it will be implemented, and the impact assessment in this regard. It will also need to look at whether there are any indirect impacts that may arise from the implementation of this legislation, if enacted. This would include any potential economic impacts and would also include, as required, an SME test. This is a pretty standard framework set out for regulatory impact assessments for any legislation. Work is in hand to advance that regulatory impact assessment in parallel with the pre-legislative scrutiny phase of the Bill.