The ABI is organised so as to respond to all government proposals to change the wide areas of law with which it is concerned. In 1998 the government announced that no proposal for regulation which has an impact upon businesses would be considered by ministers without a “regulatory impact assessment” being carried out. Rather than being just another bureaucratic requirement, the new procedures offer business and industry a major opportunity to influence the policy and legislative process.172 Parliamentary Bills are now accompanied by impact statements assessing the financial costs and benefits of the measures being proposed. In drawing up such statements civil servants are directed to consult widely. Twenty or so bodies are specifically named, one of them being the ABI.173 As a result, it is automatic for the ABI to be asked to estimate the effect of proposed reforms on insurance premiums. Insurability is therefore now a relevant consideration whenever statutory changes affecting tort are being considered. (Question 5) Impact statements have given insurers a more formal and public opportunity to make representations to government, but it is doubtful whether this has given them much more influence than they had previously. This is because their most effective representations continue to be exercised in private, behind closed doors.174