The context for the Review is the Government’s drive to reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens on business and other stakeholders, as set out in Chapter 3 of the 2005 Pre-Budget Report. Around half of new regulations that impact on business derive from the EU and there are now systems in place to ensure that such laws are not ‘over-implemented’, unless there is a strong and proven case for doing so.
However the stock of existing UK laws may include areas that were not implemented in the least burdensome way possible, thereby placing the UK at a competitive disadvantage.