Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he has made an estimate of the time spent by businesses on regulatory paperwork annually.

Determining the cumulative administrative costs of regulation that businesses face has not been done for 15 years. That’s why we are undertaking a baselining exercise to understand the administrative costs of regulation to businesses. This baseline will inform how we implement the target of reducing administrative burdens by 25% by the end of the Parliament, as announced in the March Action Plan for Regulation. We have considered different analytical options and looked to identify the most proportionate methodology to calculate the baseline for costs. We will announce a final baseline in due course.