Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to section 2, action 1 of his Department's policy paper entitled New approach to ensure regulators and regulation support growth, published on 17 March 2025, what methodology his Department plans to use to measure the monetary cost of regulation; and whether this is a (a) gross cost and (b) net cost offset by the benefits of regulation.

The government has committed to cut the administrative costs of regulation to business by 25% by the end of this Parliament. To do this, we must determine the cumulative administrative costs of regulation that businesses face, which has not been done for 15 years. By focusing on reducing administrative costs, we will ensure that regulations achieve their policy objectives in the most efficient way possible with the lowest possible costs to business.

My department is working with others across Whitehall to determine the best approach to do this and will provide further updates in due course.