Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent progress he has made on implementing the recommendations of the Taskforce on Innovation, Growth and Regulatory Reform relevant to his Department.

My Rt. Hon. Friend will be unsurprised to hear that I welcomed the radical and ground-breaking report from TIGRR. On 16 September, my Noble Friend the Rt. Hon. Lord Frost outlined the Government’s overall response to the report. This included the list of recommendations which BEIS agreed to take forward. Lord Frost also wrote to my Rt. Hon. Friend the Member for Chingford and Woodford Green. These can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/brexit-opportunities-regulatory-reforms

BEIS is continuing work to implement the agreed recommendations, subject to parliamentary time allowing.

Recent public consultations relevant to the agreed TIGRR recommendations include:

Offshore Networks Coordination – https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/offshore-transmission-network-review-proposals-for-an-enduring-regime; and

Reforming the framework for better regulation – https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/reforming-the-framework-for-better-regulation.

We are analysing responses to the consultations and will announce more in due course. The conclusions of the latter consultation in particular – on which we are working closely with Lord Frost’s Brexit Opportunities Unit – will allow us to modernise our approach to regulatory design and deliver the aims for regulation in the Plan for Growth: to cut red tape, unlock cutting-edge technologies and boost competition.