Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform was a United Kingdom government department. The department was created on 28 June 2007 on the disbanding of the Department of Trade and Industry, and was itself disbanded on 6 June 2009 on the creation of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
BERR had a wide range of responsibilities. The main areas covered were essentially those previously covered by the DTI: company law, trade, energy, business growth, employment law, regional economic development and consumer law. The principal machinery of government changes affecting the department on creation were the removal of the Office of Science and Innovation to the new Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills and the arrival of the Better Regulation Executive from the Cabinet Office. Subsequently, in October 2008, responsibility for energy policy was removed to the new Department of Energy and Climate Change. It merged with the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills in the June 2009 reshuffle to become the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
BERR was responsible for the implementation of the Companies Act 2006 and for promoting entrepreneurship in the UK. In this context, it supported initiatives such as:
