Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, with reference to the answer of 5 February 2026 to Question HL13843 on Business: Regulation, what the evidential basis and methodology is for the £22.4bn a year baseline on the cost of regulation; whether this is broken down by (a) sector and (b) department; and what the definition used was of an administrative burden.

We estimated the annual administrative burden baseline using a pragmatic, top-down approach, with data sources including the 2005-10 administrative burden reduction programme and the Business Perceptions Survey: see detail in the published 'Technical Annex – 25% Target (Annex A). It is an economy-wide measure, not disaggregated by sector or department. Definitionally, we estimate the direct administrative burden of regulation to include administrative activities covered by the Standard Cost Model, such as time businesses spend filling in regulatory forms. For further detail on individual measures, see Admin Burden Reduction Technical annex to the July 2026 progress report.