Governments have said for years that compliance is too heavy for a small business. Here is who said it, in their own words, and the arithmetic.

Part one. Who has said it

The European Commission, proposer of EU law, in its Competitiveness Compass of 29 January 2025: "Regulatory burden has become a brake on Europe's competitiveness." Its targets, in the same paper: "at least 25% for all companies and at least 35% for SMEs." It priced them in A simpler and faster Europe, 11 February 2025: "cutting recurring administrative costs by EUR 37.5 billion by the end of the mandate."

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, 21 January 2025: "Today, the European Single Market still has too many national barriers. Sometimes companies are dealing with 27 national legislations."

Mario Draghi, former President of the European Central Bank, in his competitiveness report for the Commission, 9 September 2024: "Regulation is seen by more than 60% of EU companies as an obstacle to investment, with 55% of SMEs flagging regulatory obstacles and the administrative burden as their greatest challenge." On the law's volume: "During the same period, around 13,000 acts were passed by the EU."

Enrico Letta, former Prime Minister of Italy, single market report for the European Council, April 2024: "This over-regulation places significant additional costs on businesses, proving unsustainable for SMEs".

The European Council and the European Parliament. The heads of state or government, Budapest, 8 November 2024, called for "launching a simplification revolution" and for "drastically reducing administrative, regulatory and reporting burdens, in particular for SMEs". The Parliament, in its resolution of 9 October 2025, recalled "SME compliance costs estimated at around 30 % of taxes paid compared with about 2 % for large companies".

HM Treasury and UK ministers. The action plan of HM Treasury and the Department for Business and Trade, 17 March 2025, on what businesses tell it: "Regulation can be too complex and duplicative, stifling progress and innovation." Its first action: "We commit to cut administrative costs for business by 25% by the end of the Parliament." Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer, that day: "Today we are taking further action to free businesses from the shackles of regulation."

The Regulatory Policy Committee. Stephen Gibson, Chair, 15 September 2023, on the Business Impact Target: "an estimated increase in the regulatory burden on business for this parliament (up to the removal of the BIT) of around £17.2 billion".

The Federation of Small Businesses. Craig Beaumont, Executive Director, on gov.uk, 17 March 2025: "Business owners are not bureaucrats."

The British Chambers of Commerce. Jane Gratton, Deputy Director of Public Policy, 21 October 2025: "The burden of unnecessary red tape and bureaucracy ramps up their costs and damages competitiveness."

Make UK. Verity Davidge, Director of Policy, 21 October 2025: "The manufacturing sector is currently being held back by overburdensome, confusing and duplicative regulation which is stifling growth in the sector, especially for SMEs."

The Solicitors Regulation Authority, warning notice updated 19 June 2026, on what its regulated firms hand in: "In some cases near-identical risk assessments were submitted by different firms, something that is particularly concerning."

The accountancy bodies. ICAEW, 24 September 2025: "Small firms are facing long delays, unanswered queries, and inconsistent advice from HMRC." Joe Fitzsimons of ACCA UK, 18 December 2025, on accountants: "they see first-hand how the cumulative burden of regulation erodes confidence, creates complexity and drives costly compliance errors."

France. The Government of France, statement of reasons for its bill on simplifying economic life, Senate, 24 April 2024, our translation: "the burden of standards, of procedures, of everyday complexities weighs on our economy to the tune of at least 3% of GDP". And: "micro-enterprises, SMEs and even mid-caps simply do not have the human resources to implement rules".

Germany. The Federal Ministry of Justice, on its own English page: "This is why so many companies are complaining of bureaucracy burnout." The National Regulatory Control Council, annual report of 2 October 2025, our translation: "And bureaucracy costs, at 64 billion euros a year, are also still far too high."

The Netherlands. VNO-NCW and MKB-Nederland with affiliated trade bodies, 21 August 2023, our translation: "for two thirds of obligations entrepreneurs have to hire external advice because the obligations are so complex". And: "The smaller the business, the higher the regulatory burden."

Ireland. Peter Burke TD, Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, 15 October 2025: "Cutting red tape can't just be a slogan, it's a necessity for the survival and growth of small businesses."

The Benelux and Franco-German statements. The Prime Ministers of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, 26 November 2024: "The new proposals must be designed to reduce the administrative burden, especially for SMEs". The Governments of Germany and France, 28 May 2024: "We reaffirm the need to ambitiously reduce administrative and compliance burden".

Part two. What the work costs

The business modelled is an SME trading across the European Union and the United Kingdom, 10 to 49 staff, with one person holding compliance alongside another job. The Department for Business and Trade's Business regulation: business perceptions survey 2024, published 21 October 2025, found 6 per cent of that band have a Compliance Officer or Manager, and 11.8 staff days a month spent on regulation. Mean adviser spend on regulatory compliance in that band is GBP 14,983 a year.

The model carries sixteen live obligations across six instruments: the GDPR, the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018, the EU AI Act, NIS2, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the Employment Rights Act 2025. It counts hours of qualified work, whoever does it. The hours for today come from published consultancy prices (ING-ISM, Pixelschnitzel, Open Empower, CyPro, Van der Kooij Advocaten), the 2023 Cost of Compliance survey by Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence, and the Guideline Hourly Rates of the judiciary of England and Wales, effective 1 January 2026.

Central case. Today that work takes 561 hours in the first year and 293 hours a year after. On ComplianceSME it takes 48 hours in the first year and 24 a year after. Hours given back: 513 in the first year, 269 every year after. Priced at GBP 550 a day, the UK contract median day rate for GDPR work to 11 September 2026 on ITJobsWatch, those hours are worth GBP 37,600 in the first year and GBP 19,700 a year after. Elapsed time sits outside those hours: a cross-border deal screening replaces a wait of two to six weeks with one working session.

ComplianceSME holds 116 toolkits, 3,291 compliance agents and 10,313 catalogued obligations. Each toolkit is a guided interview that writes the gap register and documents as you answer it, engineered for Claude and run in a dedicated Claude account. The Compliance Complete account is GBP 500 a month: every system you own kept current as the law moves, an update file in your account when a change lands, both filter agents, three cross-border B2B deal checks a month, a monthly letter, and a dated compliance record. The developer filter agent reads a plan, a build, a live page or an app and names the duties it carries, GBP 40 a month. The content filter agent reads a draft or a published page, GBP 15 a month. Free: the ten-minute assessment, the EU AI Act check, company law for the UK and all 27 EU member states, GDPR, every compliance date, and the news.

Those figures are one modelled business. The free ten minute assessment finds the obligations that apply to yours.

More from ComplianceSME

Every claim and its source

European Commission, A Competitiveness Compass for the EU, COM(2025) 30 final, 29 January 2025. European Commission, A simpler and faster Europe: Communication on implementation and simplification, COM(2025) 47 final, 11 February 2025. Valdis Dombrovskis, remarks on the simplification omnibus, SPEECH/25/631, 26 February 2025. Ursula von der Leyen, Special Address, World Economic Forum, SPEECH/25/285, 21 January 2025. Mario Draghi, The future of European competitiveness, Part A, 9 September 2024. Enrico Letta, Much more than a market, April 2024. Budapest Declaration on the New European Competitiveness Deal, 8 November 2024, as quoted in Council document 6432/25, 28 February 2025. European Parliament, resolution of 9 October 2025, 2024/2118(INI), Legislative Observatory summary. HM Treasury and Department for Business and Trade, A new approach to ensure regulators and regulation support growth, 17 March 2025. Rachel Reeves and Craig Beaumont, quoted in Radical action plan to cut red tape and kickstart growth, gov.uk, 17 March 2025. Small Business Regulatory Taskforce, Terms of Reference, 9 June 2026. Stephen Gibson, Regulatory Policy Committee, 15 September 2023. Jane Gratton and Verity Davidge, quoted in Chancellor cuts pointless admin in nearly £6 billion business blitz, gov.uk, 21 October 2025. Solicitors Regulation Authority, warning notice, Compliance with the money laundering regulations, firm risk assessment, updated 19 June 2026. ICAEW, It is too difficult to do business, 24 September 2025. ACCA, Regulation reform, 18 December 2025. Government of France, projet de loi de simplification de la vie economique, expose des motifs, Senate, 24 April 2024. German Federal Ministry of Justice, Reducing bureaucracy, retrieved 11 September 2026. Nationaler Normenkontrollrat, Jahresbericht 2025, 2 October 2025. VNO-NCW and MKB-Nederland, Derde van alle regels onwerkbaar voor mkb, 21 August 2023. Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, Ireland, 15 October 2025. Benelux Prime Ministers Summit Joint Declaration, Brussels, 26 November 2024. Governments of Germany and France, A new agenda to boost competitiveness and growth in the European Union, 28 May 2024. Department for Business and Trade, Business regulation: business perceptions survey 2024, published 21 October 2025. Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence, Cost of Compliance 2023. Judiciary of England and Wales, Guideline Hourly Rates, effective 1 January 2026. ITJobsWatch, GDPR contract rates, six months to 11 September 2026. Published consultancy prices used for the hours today: ING-ISM, Pixelschnitzel, Open Empower, GDPR Consultancy, Privacy Helper, Van der Kooij Advocaten.