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

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many new government schemes affecting small and medium-sized enterprises have been brought in in the last five years; and what were the costs for small and medium-sized enterprises in terms of time and money.

The Government is committed to evaluating the disproportionate impact of regulatory changes on small and micro businesses and, where possible, either exempting such businesses or mitigating the impacts without compromising the policy objectives. All regulatory impact assessments, which are published by individual government departments, must include this analysis as part of the small and micro business assessment.

In recent years, the Government has taken several steps to reduce the cost of doing business in the UK, including the commitment to cut corporation tax to 19% and the reductions to business rates announced since Budget 2016, which are worth more than £12 billion over the next five years.