These Regulations revoke the Childcare Act 2006 (Local Authority Assessment) (Wales) Regulations 2008 (“the 2008 Regulations”) and remake them in order to rectify technical errors in the 2008 Regulations and to include references to universal credit in addition to working tax credit which, by virtue of the Welfare Reform Act 2012, will be replaced by universal credit.

Regulation 3 imposes a duty upon local authorities to carry out childcare sufficiency assessments in the local authority area.

Regulation 4 sets out the matters to be contained in the assessment.

Regulations 5 and 6 prescribe the persons to be consulted in preparing the assessments and regulation 7 requires local authorities to allow the persons referred to in regulations 5 and 6 the opportunity to comment upon a draft summary of the assessment before publication.

Regulations 9 to 11 deal with the requirements of publishing the summary of the assessment.

The Welsh Ministers’ Code of Practice on the carrying out of Regulatory Impact Assessments was considered in relation to these Regulations. As a result, it was not considered necessary to carry out a regulatory impact assessment as to the likely costs and benefits of complying with these Regulations