Ricardo Fund: one year on
Published 19 June 2026
© Crown copyright 2026
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ricardo-fund-one-year-on/ricardo-fund-one-year-on
Latest statistics for the financial year 2025 to 2026
We announced the Ricardo Fund in the UK Trade Strategy 2025. The Ricardo Fund is an ambitious new programme empowering UK regulators, expert bodies and our overseas trade teams to tackle complex regulatory issues.
We’re pleased to announce that the fund is already showing early success. In the financial year 2025 to 2026, the market access programme resolved 133 barriers in full, worth around £13 billion in potential additional exports to UK businesses over 5 years.
Nine of these barriers, worth around £1.5 billion over 5 years, received funding from the Ricardo Fund. They represent some of the early successes of the programme, which spent £3.5 million on more than 140 interventions in the last financial year.
How this figure was calculated
The aggregate figure of around £13 billion over 5 years is for 133 barriers fully resolved in the financial year 2025 to 2026. The number of barriers fully resolved were published in the market access barriers annual publication in June 2026.
To calculate the aggregate figure of £13 billion, the mid-point for each valuation range is estimated over a 5 year period and added to provide a central estimate. This figure represents additional exports to UK businesses on the resolution of the barriers. Further details on the methodology for the aggregate valuation figures were published in an analytical working paper.