Recommendation 4

DBT and HM Treasury do not have a grasp on which regulatory interventions they should prioritise to achieve the administrative burden reduction target. We know from past interventions that a small number of measures account for a significant proportion of savings and costs to businesses. We are concerned that savings identified to date are much smaller than needs to be achieved. DBT alluded to the new Planning and Infrastructure and Corporate Reporting Bills. These are expected to 4 deliver £460 million in savings in total. This is clearly well below the £5.6 billion target, and could be offset by costs generated by other pieces of legislation. Departments will submit annual simplification plans identifying areas for improvement and DBT is supplementing this with engagement with businesses. However, a year on from the Action Plan’s launch the Unit is still waiting for these plans to be submitted. recommendation This Autumn the Unit should publish a table of the interventions each department will prioritise to achieve the annual administrative burden reduction target and the expected reduction. It should then update it annually.