A new package of measures cutting the costs of new laws that will benefit businesses both immediately and in the longer term, was announced on the 15th October by Business Minister Ian Lucas. Businesses will benefit by timing the introduction of 26 regulations to take account of current economic circumstances. This will save them £3.5 billion in new costs with a longer term commitment to cut a further £6.5 billion from the ongoing costs of regulation. Ian Lucas said:
‘The cost of regulation is a serious concern to business. That is why we have looked at the timing of measures to give real help to businesses now, taking out immediate costs over the next 18 months. And our new forward looking programme of regulation shows how we are delivering more than £40 billion in benefits to the economy, outstripping costs by more than four times over, before May 2011.’ Business will benefit from:
– deferred costs by making use of the planning timetable for 26 planned regulations;
– increased certainty with the publication of the Government’s programme of planned new regulation over the next 18 months;
– the creation of a new, independent scrutiny body, the Regulatory Policy Committee; and
– a new target to strip out a further £6.5 billion from the costs of regulation. Responding to business concerns about the new and cumulative costs the Government has considered the timing of the introduction of new regulations. To avoid increasing the burden on businesses 26 planned regulations will now not be introduced before April 2011, deferring costs to businesses of £3.5 billion, nearly one third of the new regulation that was planned for introduction over the next 18 months. The Government has also set a new target to cut the ongoing costs of regulation by a further £6.5 billion in total by 2015. Added to the £3.4 billion of savings that Government is on track to deliver by May 2010, this means that UK business will benefit from around a £10 billion cut in ongoing costs by 2015. Full details of the government’s new forward programme can be found