FWRECR17112BEIS - Business Perceptions Survey 2018

The objective of the BPS is to determine businesses' views on the extent of the burden of regulation, and whether their perception of the burden has changed, since the previous survey was undertaken. This includes assessing business perceptions on how regulation is enforced and delivered in practice. Where possible we are keen to determine whether any improvement in the perception of the burden is potentially down to changes in Government policy and/or whether regulation is also impacting on growth.

It is a priority for BEIS to reduce regulatory burdens and improve the way regulation is delivered, in order to provide a regulatory environment that supports growth whilst maintaining protections. Governments have announced their commitment through the introduction of a statutory Business Impact Target to help reduce the stock and flow of regulation. They have also undertaken initiatives to improve the business environment - through the Regulators' Code, the Growth Duty on regulators and cutting red tape reviews. It is important that the impact of these actions is tracked, and the BPS gives BEIS an opportunity to assess how far these measures have been felt by businesses and where there is a need to focus more effort.

The survey also contributes to the Department's wider aims around business growth in terms of helping identify areas where regulatory burdens may be affecting business activities and what we might do to remove them and improve the regulatory environment. 2018 is an important year to run the survey because it provides a baseline before our exit from the EU. (It also continues the biennial programme of previous surveys.)

The survey gathers intelligence for policy development - as results help identify areas where regulatory burdens may be affecting business activities and what we might do to remove them. The outputs can and have been used to determine our future focus and work programmes. The proposed questions on EU regulations would be valuable for informing our regulatory policies following EU exit. Furthermore, the existing survey identifies respondents who provide products or services in the EU - so it would also be possible to compare views of businesses currently trading in the EU with those that are not.