AQW 15352/22-27

Ms Kate Nicholl
Alliance Party
South Belfast

Tabled Date: 19/09/2024
Answered On Date: 30/09/2024
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for the Economy to detail any consideration he has given to making the completion of a small and micro business impact test a statutory requirement across all government departments and arm's-length bodies.

Answer:

The small and micro business impact test (SAMBIT) is an important part of our policymaking process and an integral part of the Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) toolkit.

In line with Executive guidance, I, and fellow Ministers, require an RIA to be considered and, if not screened out, to be applied and used to support policy development for any new, or amendments to existing, policy proposals.

I have asked my officials to work closely with the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) to identify how the profile of the SAMBIT can be further built and developed in order to better champion its consideration and usage as an integral part of the policymaking process.

To make the SAMBIT a specific statutory requirement would require significant legislative underpinning. The current legislative programme is already under significant pressure; as such, there are no plans to consider this in the current mandate.