To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many regulations were (a) implemented and (b) revoked by his Department in each year since 2001; and what estimate he has made of the cost to industry of complying with regulations implemented by his Department in each year since 2001. (185708)

DEFRA has commissioned an independent project to review the stock, and establish a comprehensive ongoing record, of general Statutory Instruments introduced since 1 January 2001. The project includes categorising whether SIs are, for example, minor, technical, amending, or revocations. The Department will place in the Libraries of both Houses of Parliament, no later than 31 March 2008, a short report on the outcomes of the project. Non-finalised data shows that, for general SIs, the breakdown is as follows:

In 2005, together with other Government Departments, DEFRA embarked on a programme to reduce the administrative burden of regulation by a net 25 per cent., by 2010. At that time, DEFRA’s pre-existing administrative burden (i.e. the total cost to business of form filling, dealing with inspections and providing statutory information to third parties) was estimated by PricewaterhouseCoopers at £527.8 million.

DEFRA has published Simplification Plans in each year since 2005. The Department’s latest Simplification Plan, Cutting Red Tape, was published in December 2007. It shows that, taking account of new Regulations that have added additional administrative burdens, the overall burden the Department imposes on business should be no more than £395.8 million by 2010, a reduction of £132 million or 25 per cent.