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Small Businesses: Regulation

Asked by Wendy MortonConservativeDepartment for Business and TradeTabled Answered 7 January 2026UIN 101365

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps she is taking to reduce regulatory burdens on small and medium-sized enterprises.

Answered by Blair McDougall

The Small Business Plan outlines how we are supporting SMEs across the UK through the most significant package of legislative reforms in 25 years to tackle late payments; unlock billions of pounds in finance and remove unnecessary red tape.

We have also committed to reduce the administrative burden of regulation for all businesses by £5.6 billion by the end of this Parliament. We have already announced measures to ease the regulatory burden on SMEs, including efforts to modernise corporate reporting requirements, exempting tens of thousands of companies from producing Strategic and Directors' Reports, helping deliver annual savings of around £230 million.

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