UK to let companies test pavement robots and drones under new rules next year
Key Points
- Chancellor John Healey wants sandboxing powers ready to deploy across the UK economy in 2027
- The powers would let firms test pavement robots, drones and medical treatments blocked by current rules
- Healey committed to cutting business regulation by 25% by the end of this Parliament
- Judicial review reforms will extend from energy to all major infrastructure
Chancellor John Healey has set a target of having new sandboxing powers ready to deploy across the UK economy in 2027, allowing businesses to test technologies such as pavement robots and drones that current regulation blocks.
Healey made the announcement in his first Growth Speech at the Manufacturing Technology Centre on Monday (7 September), with a full transcript published by HM Treasury.
Sandboxes let companies trial products in a controlled setting with regulatory requirements relaxed or waived for the duration of the test.
“Sandboxing powers, what this means is that businesses and innovators, inventors, can safely test frontier technologies from pavement robots to drones to lifesaving medical treatments,” said John Healey, Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Healey said the system of regulation currently prevents these tests and described the powers as a way to unleash the innovations of the future.
The Chancellor also confirmed a commitment to cut the burden of business regulation by 25% by the end of this Parliament.
He said the government would extend its reforms of judicial review from energy to all major infrastructure so that litigation cannot block economic growth.
Healey and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds will convene the major regulators later this autumn to identify where those regulators hold British business back and make practical changes ahead of the Spending Review.
The Chancellor said he would end the consultation culture at the Treasury and beyond, supported by new guidance from the Attorney General that legal risk is not the deciding factor in ministerial decisions.
Healey said the UK ranks third in the world for innovation and is a world leader in quantum, nuclear fusion, AI and advanced manufacturing.
