Guidance

Tell us about regulatory barriers affecting your business

Published 20 April 2026

Following on from a successful pilot in our priority sectors, defence and robotics, this phase is designed to help us understand the regulatory barriers that are holding back innovation across all science and technology sectors to inform the future design of the RIO Front Door service.

What businesses can expect

This phase is open to businesses both within and outside RIO’s current priority sectors. This is a data‑collection and insights  exercise; we want to understand from businesses what type of service would help businesses who are not in one our priority sectors.

For this phase we will not follow up with every business that submits information. We may contact some businesses to explore issues in more detail or to test elements of the service as part of our design process.

Alongside this work, we will continue targeted engagement on defence and robotics through our relationships with Business Relationship Organisations.

Please note, the RIO does not resolve individual businesses’ applications to regulators; we do not advocate on behalf of individual businesses or intervene in live regulatory decisions.

How will the insights be used:

• We will use insights from businesses to identify common regulatory barriers, gaps, and points of friction across the system.
• This includes building a clearer picture of where businesses are struggling, such as:
• Uncertainty about which regulator is responsible.
• Issues that fall between 2 or more regulators.
• Areas where existing regulatory pathways do not work well for innovative businesses.
• By analysing patterns across submissions, we will identify where parts of the economy are most constrained by regulatory barriers, to help inform where we can have the most amount of impact
• The insights will also inform the next phase of the RIO Front Door service to businesses, including but not limited to:
• A clear framework defining the scope of the RIO Front Door service, enabling businesses to understand whether it is the appropriate route for their issue.
• The types of support RIO can offer, including for businesses outside current priority sectors.
• How we will manage demand from businesses with limited team capacity.
• We will publish how we have used the evidence and our conclusions in Autumn 2026.

What we’ll ask you

The form asks for:

• your business name and email address
• which sector you work in
• your organisation type (for example, early-stage start-up, scale-up, investor)
• what your product or technology does
• which regulator you’re facing challenges with
• details of the regulatory challenge, including any contact you’ve had with the regulator or government department
• how this challenge is affecting your business (for example, delaying product launch, affecting investment, limiting growth)
• suggestions on how the RIO front door could best support you

Fill out the form

Complete the Front Door pilot phase 2 business insights form.

What happens next

The pilot will run until 19 June 2026.

We may adjust the timing (deadline) depending on the number of responses we receive. Your responses will be reviewed by the RIO team (see ‘How will the insights be used’ for further information). We will publish how we have used the evidence and our conclusions in Autumn 2026.