Holes in NSW govt's red tape claim: report

The Baird government's bid to slash red tape has not been effective and claims its cost-cutting measures led to nearly $900 million in savings are wrong, the NSW Auditor-General says.

The controversial overhaul of the education department's IT system, Learning Management and Business Reform (LMBR), was just one of the measures the government undertook as part of its red tape reduction program between 2011 and 2015, which it said resulted in $896 million in savings.

But there's little data to support such assumptions, a report tabled by Auditor-General Margaret Crawford to parliament on Thursday said.

"Estimates for some initiatives were based on unverified assumptions, cost transfers or unrealised projections," it said.

The total cost to businesses and the community for complying with the state's regulations actually increased by $16.1 million over the same period, it said.

It's recommended the Department of Premier and Cabinet set a framework for reducing red tape and re-establish a program of targeted reductions of unnecessary regulations.

Innovation and Better Regulation Minister Victor Dominello said the government supported the majority of the auditor's recommendations, including its calls for the establishment of a new division within his department to take whole-of-government responsibility for oversight of red tape and regulatory reform.

An independent expert panel will also be appointed to review the current red tape reduction and regulatory reform initiatives.

It will provide a progress report to parliament by July 2017.

Opposition innovation and better regulation spokeswoman Yasmin Catley said the report was confirmation the government had failed to remove the regulatory burden on the NSW economy.

"The government has been caught out using spin and inflated figures," she said.

The report's finding that the regulatory burden faced by businesses had increased since the government introduced its reform changes in 2011 was particularly damning, she said.