Consultation Hub

We invited views on removing the requirement for offshore oil and gas operators to make relevant documents available for public inspection at a specified address, where the effects of coronavirus related restrictions on movement meant that it is was not reasonably practicable for the public to access documents in this way. We proposed that the offshore oil and gas operators instead made the documents available on a publicly accessible website.

We received 3 responses from interested parties. You queried that while websites which will host the documents may not be in the purview of the regulations, but will be delivering what amounts to a public service, if these websites would meet web accessibility standards required of public service websites.

In addition to the offshore oil and gas operators making the documents available on their websites BEIS would consider making the documents available on our website which does meet web accessibility standards required of public service websites.

We sought views on the draft Co-ordination of Regulatory Enforcement Regulations 2017 which include measures to ensure that Primary Authority can operate from 1 October 2017 when the scheme is extended and simplified by provisions in the Enterprise Act 2016.  We also asked for views on replacing the ‘categories’ system for defining the scope of partnerships.

We received 64 formal responses and also obtained feedback from around 240 stakeholders who attended engagement events held during the consultation period.  

Stakeholders were broadly supportive of the measures in the draft regulations. There was a wider range of views on the proposed new approach for determining the scope of partnerships.

As a result of the consultation responses and wider stakeholder feedback we have amended the draft regulations. 

We have also produced draft revised Primary Authority Statutory Guidance. This reflects and clarifies the changes to Primary Authority introduced by the Enterprise Act 2016 and the new secondary legislation. It also describes how the new approach to defining partnerships will work in practice. 

The full Government response is published at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/unlocking-the-potential-of-primary-authority

We invited views on how to improve the UK’s corporate governance framework.

We received 375 responses from interested parties. A summary of the responses is included in the consultation response document.

In the coming months we will introduce new laws to require:

• around 900 listed companies to annually publish and justify the pay ratio between CEOs and their average UK worker
• all companies of a significant size to publicly explain how their directors take employees’ and shareholders’ interests into account
• all large companies to make their responsible business arrangements public