Part 2: Regulators Reporting requirements Sections 15 and 16: Reporting requirements
Section 15 inserts section 23A into the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006 (LRRA) and will apply to any "relevant regulator" (i.e. a person, other than a local authority, with regulatory functions to which section 22 of LRRA applies). Section 22 of the LRRA permits a Minister to issue a code of practice (the current code of practice under section 22 is the Regulators’ Code) to which persons with regulatory functions to which section 22 LRRA applies must have regard. Section 16 inserts section 110A into the Deregulation Act 2015 and will apply to any "regulator" with regulatory functions that are brought in scope of the duty to have regard to the desirability of promoting economic growth (i.e. the growth duty) in section 108(1) of that Act.
	Subsections (1) and (2) of both new sections introduce a requirement on regulators who are subject to a duty to have regard to the Regulators’ Code and/or the growth duty ("the Duties") to publish an annual performance report. The report must set out the effect that a regulator's performance of the Duties has had on the way it has exercised the functions to which the Duties apply. There are a number of ways in which the Duties might affect the way a regulator exercises its functions. The Duties may or may not affect the outcome in a particular case, for example, a regulator may decide that a provision of the Regulators’ Code is outweighed by another relevant consideration. The Government intends that guidance will set out how these scenarios should be covered in a performance report.
	Subsection (4) of new section 23A and subsection (3) of new section 110A require the performance report to also include a regulator’s assessment of the views of business about this effect, the impact the effect has had on business, and a forward look covering any future effects a regulator expects to result from the Duties.
	Subsections (5) and (6) in new section 23A and subsections (4) and (5) in new section 110A provide a Minister of the Crown with the power to issue guidance on the preparation and publication of performance reports. Regulators must follow this guidance unless there is a good reason not to do so. Both sections make provision for the timing of annual performance reports, the aim of which is to enable a regulator to include their report in their existing annual report, should they wish to.
	Subsection (10) in new section 23A and subsection (9) in new section 110A require a regulator to provide certain information to a Minister, which the Minister may from time to time request. The Commission for Equality and Human Rights is exempt from the requirement in new section 23A(10). This requirement is largely limited to the type of information required in subsections (2) and (3) but also covers information relating to instances in which it appears to a Minister that a regulator has not followed the guidance issued under subsection (5) of new section 23A and subsection (4) of new section 110A.
	The Regulators’ Code does not cover operational matters. Whilst the Growth Duty does cover operational matters, new section 110A(10) makes it clear that the duty to report on performance in respect of the Growth Duty does not require a regulator to report on the exercise of functions in relation to a particular person and, as a result, regulators will not be required to report on individual operational matters.
	Subsection (11) in both sections clarifies that the reporting duty does not apply if there is other legislation that would prevent the regulator from disclosing such information (unless that legislation contains provision for such disclosure where another Act, such as this, requires that information is provided). This is to prevent a situation where the regulator is both under a duty to include information in a performance report, but is prevented from doing so by other legislation.
	The regulatory functions which are the subject of the reporting requirements introduced by new sections 23A and 110A are subject to the devolution constraints in section 24(3) of LRRA and section 109(3) of the Deregulation Act 2015 respectively. The sections extend to the United Kingdom. Section 44(5) provides that the new section 23A LRRA and section 110A of the Deregulation Act 2015 come into force on such day as the Secretary of State may by regulations appoint.