Recommendation 5

HM Treasury and DBT do not have a robust plan to achieve the 25% reduction in the administrative burden. In the absence of individual targets for departments and regulators, the Unit relies on departmental annual simplification plans to monitor progress against the target. The Unit intends to publish analysis of the first set of these plans in spring 2026. HM Treasury announced that it identified the potential for £1.5 billion of administrative burden savings in October 2025, but this is a gross figure. The planned spring update will therefore be the first time the Unit reports on progress against the £5.6 billion net target. If this update shows the target is off-track, the Unit lacks strong accountability measures to hold departments to account. Savings under the Business Impact Reduction Programme (2015–2023) were scrutinised by the Regulatory Policy Committee. No such independent validation is planned for the Action Plan target. Instead, validation will be provided by departmental Chief Economists. This process has not yet started. recommendation a. The Unit should introduce milestones and regular progress reporting, to hold departments to account, and report annually to Parliament. Cost savings should be independently validated. b. Alongside the information specified in recommendation 4, the Unit should monitor expected increases in the administrative burden arising from new legislation. This should be published, by department, and updated annually. This would enable transparency as to whether government is on track to meet its net reduction target of £5.6bn. Midway through the programme, if the Unit deems the programme to be off track, it must allocate administrative burden targets to departments. 5 1 Regulating to support growth Introduction