Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 21
74th Report - Environmental regulation
Published 25 Mar 2026
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Environmental regulation All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
Enforcement action is sometimes necessary, but it is costly for the regulators and may require court action.54 Enforcement is needed less often when advice, guidance and support help those businesses comply in the first place. Businesses often do not understand what is required of them, find it difficult to locate and use guidance, and say they do not always get sufficient support to comply which can increase the regulatory burden on them.55
From: Public Accounts Committee, 74th Report - Environmental regulation (HC 1687), 25 March 2026
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 1 June 2026 (deadline 25 May 2026).