Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform

BERR had a wide range of responsibilities. The main areas covered were essentially those previously covered by the DTI: company law, trade, 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.