These Regulations are made either by virtue of, or in consequence of, provisions in the Part 1 of the Welfare Reform Act 2007 (“the Act”). The Regulations are made before the end of the period of 6 months beginning with the coming into force of those provisions and are therefore exempted from the requirement in section 172(1) of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 (c. 5) to refer proposals to make them to the Social Security Advisory Committee and are made without reference to that Committee.