How we are run

Under the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015, a new government must set a target for the economic impact on business of qualifying regulatory provisions made during the course of the Parliament. This is the business impact target (BIT).

The Enterprise Act 2016 brought the actions of regulators into the government’s deregulation target.

The policy objectives of the BIT are to:

• reduce regulatory burdens on business and voluntary or community bodies, to free up resources and boost productivity
• increase transparency around the impact of regulation on business
• provide greater incentives for regulators to design and deliver policies that better meet the needs of business while respecting regulators’ primary duties.

Statutory regulators must publish:

• their qualifying regulatory provisions (QRPs)
• an assessment of the economic impact on business of those QRPs
• a summary of regulatory provisions that are non-qualifying regulatory provisions (NQRPs).

The Department for Education undertook an assessment of the economic impact assessment of the Higher Education and Research Act 2017, submitting the assessment to the Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC) for verification. These costed qualifying regulatory provisions contributed to the assessment of progress towards the BIT during this Parliament.

The OfS is required to assess the impact of any changes to current regulatory activity which impacts on business.

There are statutory and administrative exemptions which mean that some activity is viewed as non-qualifying regulatory provision and does not need to be costed.

Summary statements