The Department is committed to cutting unnecessary burdens and prescription and to giving professionals the freedom and autonomy they need to get on with their jobs.
Part of this is making it easier for professionals to understand how to fulfill their legal obligations and exercise their statutory powers by making our guidance and advisory content clearer and more succinct, and by separating out statutory ‘must do’ information from that which is non statutory i.e. where it is for the recipient to decide whether or not to access it.
This section contains new departmental advice. This is non-statutory and is produced to help recipients understand what complex or wide-ranging statutory provisions mean in practice and what needs to be done to comply with them. It may also be produced on other duties or areas of responsibility which are not set out in statute, such as public law duties.
As with statutory guidance, advice is presented in a new standardised format that clearly sets out:
- who the advice is aimed at
- the legislation or duty it relates to
- what it is updating or replacing
- when the advice will next be reviewed or will expire
- the key points - such as what is new or has changed.
