§ Mr. SproatTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what financial provisions, and how much, he has made within his Department in order to look at the potential for deregulation of each of the regulatory measures for which he has responsibility.
§ Mr. Neil HamiltonResponsibility for identifying and exploiting the potential for deregulation is shared by Ministers and by all those advising Ministers on the formulation, implementation and enforcement of regulations. DTI has a departmental deregulation unit which is responsible to me for promoting progress within DTI under the Government's deregulation initiative. For the current financial year, the unit's running costs are approximately £100,000. The central deregulation unit is also located in my Department. It is responsible for driving forward the Deregulation Initiative across the whole of Whitehall generally by assisting all departmental deregulation units. The aim of the deregulation initiative is to reduce significantly administrative and regulatory burdens on business. The initiative has three main objectives: better existing regulation, by cutting unnecessary burdens on business and reducing compliance and enforcement costs; effective new regulation, by ensuring that potential costs and the views of business are accounted for in framing and implementing new regulation; and greater official awareness of the views and needs of business.