To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate he has made of the cost to business of complying with his Department’s regulations in each of the last five years. (192033)

In accordance with the Better Regulation Executive’s guidance, the Department ensures that published regulatory impact assessments (RIAs) and impact assessments (IAs) are accessible via its website at:

http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/regulat/impact-assessment/index.htm

RIAs/IAs include a cost and benefit analysis and information on individual regulations is therefore available from the DEFRA website. The Department does not currently aggregate that data but is looking to improve both data collation and analysis, as well as post implementation reviews, in the context of introducing an updated policy-cycle framework.

However, it needs to borne in mind that policy costs, in isolation, give a distorted picture of the impact of regulations as they need to be weighed against likely benefits to business, society, the environment, biodiversity, and animal health and welfare, and these will be different in each case.