Nursery World - Call for change in rules on top-up fees

The Government should urgently review its own rules banning private and voluntary nurseries from charging top-up fees, the Federation of Small Businesses said last week, after seeking legal advice on the revised code of practice.

The FSB has called into question whether the Government has fullyconsidered the impact on the PVI sector which, it claims, is forcingsome nurseries out of business.

It sought legal opinion on the measures in the code because theGovernment did not carry out a Regulatory Impact Assessment when therevised code was published in April 2006.

The FSB has called on the Government to carry out a RIA and a smallfirms' impact test (News, 10 May).

The barrister's summary concluded, 'I retain doubts of whether the FSBwould succeed in an action for a judicial review of the code. However,there are good prospects for the FSB to demand a post-implementaryImpact Assessment (IA) into the implications of the code for PVInurseries.'

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