Business groups warn against axing red tape watchdog
Published: 03:05 PM,May 20,2026 | EDITED : 07:05 PM,May 20,2026
Some of UK’s largest business groups have urged the business secretary not to scrap a body responsible for scrutinising business regulation, saying it plays a “fundamental” role evaluating the impact of red tape on British firms. The intervention comes as the Department for Business confirmed that ministers are “considering the role” of the watchdog.
In a rare joint intervention, a group of eight industry bodies, including all of the so-called ‘Big Five’, wrote to Peter Kyle MP, Secretary of State for Business and Trade and President of the Board of Trade, to warn against any move to abolish the Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC) after reports emerged that it may be axed as part of the government’s deregulation drive.
“We view the RPC as a vital component of the UK’s legislative architecture, providing independent security of the impact assessments which should accompany most government legislation”, the industry chiefs wrote.
“Whilst the findings are not always comfortable reading for the governments of all colours, the RPC’s role as an objective arbitrator is fundamental to the government’s regulation framework”.
The RPC was established in 2009 to scrutinise government regulation, providing an independent view on the feasibility of the so-called regulatory impact assessments compiled by civil servants alongside any new regulation. It evaluates the quality of analysis underpinning the assessments, giving each document a ‘red’ or ‘green’ rating, as well as a set of quality indicators ranging from ‘good’ to ‘very weak’.
But ministers are mulling whether to axe the arms-length body as they examine ways to realise Keir Starmer’s ambition for a “complete rewiring of the British state”, amidst concerns the Prime Minister is struggling to push through his policy agenda.
He used a speech recently to rail against a “cottage industry of checkers and blockers” who were using taxpayer money to stop ministers delivering on taxpayer priorities.
“People join civil service because they want to serve their country by delivering change”, he told staff at the consumer giant Rickett. “Yet somehow — we take that energy, that pride, that patriotism and we misdirect it into blocking. Well, that’s got to end”.
But in a robust defence of the RPC, the group of industry chiefs warned the government against making the RPC a casualty of the drive, saying it “performs its role at minimal cost and on an advisory only basis”.
The business groups’ letter also urged minister to clarify their intentions amidst concerns departments would be able to mark their own homework on the ramifications of a new policy.
Their concerns were echoed by shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith, who equated any move to abolish the RPC as akin to “the Chancellor scrapping the Office for Budget Responsibility”. He said that red tape was strangling British business.
A survey from the Federation of Small Businesses has found small firms and entrepreneurs collectively spend 379 million hours a year complying with regulations. And there has been no shortage of effort from the government to increase that burden. But now, ministers are turning their sights towards the watchdog whose job is to ask of all new regulation, “At what cost?”
Reports that the department for business and trade is considering scrapping the Regulatory Policy Committee are deeply concerning, he said. “The RPC is the independent group tasked with calculating the true cost of regulation to the UK economy and assessing whether the government impact assessments — their own scorecards — are up to scratch”.
Griffith further said that the RPC is a lean body that works hard to ensure the costs and administrative burdens imposed on businesses are accurately measured and transparently reported to Parliament before they become law. Without RPC there will be no independent body to hold lawmakers to account if they decide to introduce new red tape.