Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much has been spent on the Red Tape Challenge in each year since its inception.

The amount spent on the Red Tape Challenge by the Cabinet Office in each year since its inception is shown below.

FY 2016/17 £124,600

FY 2015/16 £297,855

FY 2014/15 £829,368

FY 2013/14 £139,526

FY 2012/13 £465,172

FY 2011/12 £176,357

The Red Tape Challenge programme was launched by the Cabinet Office in 2011 and ran until 2015. Its purpose was to help deliver the then Prime Minister’s and the coalition Government’s commitment to be the first government to leave with the overall burden of regulation on business reduced.

Each Department in Government was challenged to identify out-of-date, obsolete or unnecessary regulations around a series of themes and sectors. The Red Tape Challenge had, by 2014, identified over 3,000 regulations to scrap or improve, delivering estimated savings to UK businesses of over £850m per year as a result of the programme.