Recommendation 16

A small number of regulatory interventions account for a disproportionately large proportion of costs and savings to business. The C&AG’s report found that, out of around 100 published impact assessments reviewed by the Regulatory Policy Committee since 2020, a quarter of regulations reporting an increase in cost to business accounted for 80% of the rise in overall cost. The same was true for savings: one-third of regulations reporting a saving to business accounted for 80% of the overall saving.38 This principle also applies to past government initiatives to cut regulatory costs. The C&AG previously reported that over 90% of the £10 billion cost reduction reported by government during the 2010–2015 Parliament came down to 10 changes.39