Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of recent regulatory changes on levels of compliance costs for SMEs.

Each government department is responsible for providing Parliament with proportionate analysis of any regulatory provisions that it introduces, including the impact of those provisions on SMEs.

The Better Regulation Framework requires departments to produce a dedicated small and micro business assessment and medium-sized business regulatory exemption assessment for all domestic measures that require collective agreement by Cabinet and have an annualised net direct cost to business greater than £10 million.

This approach helps to ensure proportionate and transparent regulation, giving SMEs confidence that the UK is the best place to start and scale a business.