Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what plans the Department has to publish impact assessments of regulatory changes affecting small businesses.

Impact assessments are generally required for all the Government’s interventions of a regulatory nature that affect the private sector and-or civil society organisation or public services. The Better Regulation Framework requires regulatory provisions with impacts on business of greater than +/-£10 million to be accompanied by a final impact assessment which is laid before Parliament alongside the regulations. These assessments consider the impact on small businesses, explore whether such businesses need to be in scope and identify mitigations for the additional burden.