Tuesday 21st October 2025

(1 day, 22 hours ago)

Written Statements
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Rachel Reeves Portrait The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Rachel Reeves)
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Improving regulation in the UK, ensuring that it enables growth and does not unduly hold back investment, is an essential part of this Government’s growth mission and delivering on the plan for change.

In March, the Government published an action plan which set out how we will overhaul the regulatory system so that it not only provides critical safeguards and protects consumers, but drives sustained economic growth across the country, is targeted and proportionate, transparent and predictable, and keeps pace with innovation. To achieve that vision, the Government committed to delivering a package of reforms over the course of the Parliament that focus on tackling the complexity and the burden of regulation, reducing uncertainty across the regulatory system and challenging risk aversion.

Six months after the action plan’s publication, the Government are setting out the tangible progress we have made to deliver on that vision and setting out a range of new reforms to the same end.

The Prime Minister committed to reduce the administrative burdens of regulation on business by 25% by the end of the Parliament. We have now established a baseline for the administrative burden of regulation on businesses of £22.4 billion a year, which means that the Government target is to reduce the annual administrative burden of regulation by £5.6 billion by the end of the Parliament.

Alongside establishing a baseline, the Government have already taken action to meet the target, identifying £1.5 billion of administrative burden savings, for example through the Planning and Infrastructure Bill which is expected to deliver £272 million in administrative savings by the end of the Parliament; the establishment of the national underground asset register which will deliver over £185 million in administrative savings per year; and reforms to the information which the Prudential Regulation Authority requires from financial services firms, which are saving businesses over £100 million per year in administrative burdens.

We have simplified and streamlined the regulatory landscape, including through significant reforms to the Financial Ombudsman Service; the Government intention to abolish Ofwat and merge the water regulation functions of four different bodies into a single water regulator following the Independent Water Commission report; and delivering legislation to establish the fair work agency through the Employment Rights Bill, consolidating the functions of the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate and the director of Labour Market Enforcement into a single public body.

The Government have also taken targeted action to ensure regulatory frameworks and processes support economic growth. We have published the UK’s modern industrial strategy and set out targeted regulatory reforms across eight high-priority growth sectors, such as overhauling our planning system, reforming the money laundering regulations to make requirements for around 100,000 businesses more effective and proportionate, and through the current statutory review of the UK’s medicines and medical device regulatory framework which will support responsible innovation, benefiting patients, the NHS and the economy. We will also take advantage of the opportunities from improving our bilateral relationship with the EU to ease burdens on business.

Today the Government have published “Regulation Action Plan - Progress Update and Next Steps”, setting out how the Government are going further to realise the vision set out in the action plan. Key actions include:

Tackling complexity and the burden of regulation

The Secretary of State for Business and Trade has made a written ministerial statement regarding legislative changes the Department for Business and Trade will bring forward to reform corporate reporting requirements, aiming to save businesses an estimated £230 million annually in administrative costs.

HM Treasury will consolidate the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing supervisory functions of 22 professional services supervisory bodies. The Financial Conduct Authority will assume responsibility for this. Reform of the UK’s AML/CTF supervision regime will strengthen the UK’s defences against illicit finance, support sustainable growth, and simplify a complex regulatory system.

Following a review announced as part of the regulation action plan and delivered through the Cabinet Office’s review of arm’s length bodies, the Secretary of State for Business and Trade intends to abolish the British Hallmarking Council and consolidate its functions alongside wider product regulation functions when parliamentary time allows.

Reducing uncertainty across our regulatory system

The Government will reform the growth duty so that the legal framework is clearer, more focused and ensures regulators must consider and promote growth. We will work with regulators to ensure they have clarity from Government regarding what growth means for them.

The Secretary of State for Business and Trade will lead efforts to strengthen regulator accountability by establishing a single regulator performance dashboard, using stakeholder feedback to support rigorous scrutiny of key performance indicators, and chairing a new regulators council to strengthen accountability and transparency across UK regulators.

Consistent with the objectives of the CMA’s own reforms, DBT will consult in the coming weeks on proposals to provide greater certainty for businesses on whether transactions will be subject to merger control; proposals to ensure remedies are regularly reviewed; as well as changes to how the CMA makes decisions in mergers and markets investigations. This includes replacing the CMA’s panel model for decision-making by replicating the Digital Markets Board Committee model, for both the CMA’s mergers and markets functions.

Challenge risk aversion



The Government will ensure that the UK is ready to take advantage of the growth opportunities presented by the next generation of aerial vehicles, including by publishing an investor-focused commercial road map for launching private drone operations in the UK, and going further to remove friction within the regulatory environment.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology will bridge the gap between innovation in AI and regulation through consulting on establishing an AI growth lab—a pioneering cross-economy sandbox, enabling carefully supervised deployment of responsible AI applications that current regulation limits.

The Secretary of State for Business and Trade has also published unlocking business: reform driven by you, a business questionnaire to gather direct insight from firms on where regulation is creating unnecessary burdens.

These actions are grounded in what businesses say about the ways in which regulation is an obstacle to their success. That feedback is detailed in the 2024 Business Perceptions survey, published today by the Secretary of State for Business and Trade.

The Government will continue working with industry, regulators, and Parliament to ensure that the regulatory system protects consumers and supports competition, but also encourages new investment, innovation and growth.

The full regulation action plan progress update is available on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/a-new-approach-to-ensure-regulators-and-regulation-support-growth

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