Burden Reduction: An Evaluation of Statutory Instruments in the UK Government's Regulatory Off-setting and Business Impact Target Initiatives 2010-2019

Abstract

This article analyses Statutory Instruments passed between 2010 and 2019 to evaluate the embeddedness of the UK Government’s regulatory off-setting and Business Impact Target initiatives. It begins by outlining the origins of those initiatives and their scope, technical details and compliance mechanisms. After describing the methodology for the analysis, it reports results showing that a range of exclusions and exemptions limit the number of Statutory Instruments covered by the initiatives, that the intensity with which burden reduction is pursued declines over time and that the largest savings are incidental rather than being motivated by a desire to reduce burden.