Regulations

Mr. Paul Marsden
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many new regulations on business have been introduced in each year since 1997. [111923]

Ms Hewitt
The number of Statutory Instruments (SIs) that this Department has passed is as follows: 1997: 1301998: 1351999: 1782000: 1482001: 1262002: 109

Only a small proportion of SIs have a significant impact on business. Of the 109 SIs produced in 2002, 11 have produced cost savings for business and 77 have had negligible or no impact. A regulatory impact assessment is produced for all SIs that have a cost to or benefit for business and copies are available from the Libraries of the House.