Departmental EC Law

Mr. Hayes
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent estimate his Department has made of the annual cost to the economy arising from UK implementation of EU legislation.

Mr. McFadden
It is very difficult to provide precise figures for the annual cost to the economy arising from UK implementation of legislation that stems from the European Union.

The administrative burdens measurement exercise carried out by the Government in 2006 put the proportion of administrative burdens stemming from the EU at approximately 1/3 of the annual total of 13.2 billion pounds.