Part 5 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 (“the Act”) allows specified persons, listed in the Schedules to the Act, to share information for specific purposes.

These Regulations amend Schedules 4, 5 and 6 (specified persons for the purposes of public service delivery), Schedule 7 (specified persons for the purposes of the debt provisions) and Schedule 8 (specified persons for the purposes of the fraud provisions) to the Act. These Regulations add persons who are Welsh bodies (as defined in the Act) to those Schedules to enable them to make use of the powers in Chapter 1 (public service delivery), Chapter 3 (debt owed to the public sector) and Chapter 4 (fraud against the public sector) of Part 5 (Digital Government) of the Act.

The Welsh Ministers’ Code of Practice on the carrying out of Regulatory Impact Assessments was considered in relation to these Regulations. As a result, a regulatory impact assessment has been prepared as to the likely costs and benefits of complying with these Regulations. A copy can be obtained at http://www.assembly.wales/laid%20documents/sub-ld11466-em/sub-ld11466-em-e.pdf.