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 issue an opinion before the relevant legislation is laid before Parliament.
We note that the Tobacco and Vapes Bill was introduced to Parliament on 20th March 2024. The RPC issued a fit-for-purpose (green) opinion on the Bill's IA to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) on 12th February 2024 and had been preparing to publish it upon introduction of the Bill. However, on 19th March DHSC re-submitted a revised IA reflecting changes made to the Bill.
We are now reviewing the revised IA and will produce a new 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.
