UK To Cut Red Tape

by Robert Lee, Tax-News.com, London

06 August 2010

The UK Business Secretary, Vince Cable, on August 5 announced a comprehensive package of measures to support the government’s drive to tackle unnecessary government interference and red tape. According to Cable, the measures will help transform the relationship between people and government by changing how regulations are drawn up, introduced and implemented.

Under the government’s plans, the government is seeking public advice on what laws or regulations should be scrapped, and is to adopt more rigorous testing of prospective measures that might cause interference to businesses and/or volunteer organizations.

According to the Business Secretary, from September 1, a new ‘One-in, One-out system’ will begin. This will require ministers who seek to introduce new regulations that would impose costs on business or the voluntary sector to identify regulations currently in force with an equivalent value that could be removed to offset the change.

To reinforce this new approach to how Whitehall introduces new laws and regulations, and to ensure that the costs of red tape are being properly addressed across the UK economy, the government has also:

• Agreed a set of Principles of Regulation that government departments must apply when considering new regulations impacting upon business, social enterprises, individuals and community groups;
• Asked the independent Regulatory Policy Committee to perform the role of externally scrutinising the evidence and analysis supporting new regulatory proposals, prior to policy decisions being made. It will also analyse proposals for the implementation of EU legislation. In doing so, the RPC will help drive up the accuracy and quality of Impact Assessments; and
• Provided the opportunity for the public and businesses to inform the government which onerous regulations they believe should be removed or changed through the Your Freedom website, launched last month by the Deputy Prime Minster, Nick Clegg.

The government has also said it will be closely monitoring EU regulations to ensure these do not place an excessive burden on UK businesses by: engaging earlier in the Brussels policy process; taking strong cross-government negotiating lines; and working to end so-called ‘gold-plating’ of EU regulations, so that when European rules are transposed into UK law they do not put British business at a competitive disadvantage to other European-based companies.

Commenting, Cable stated:

“Together these measures represent a fundamental shift in how Whitehall has traditionally used regulation as a way to command and control.”

“We have to move quickly delivering credible and meaningful reductions in the burdens that hinder hard-pressed businesses and charities. We have to create a common sense approach in the way we think about new laws.”

“By ensuring regulation becomes a last resort, we will create an environment that frees business from the burden of red tape, helping to create the right conditions for recovery and growth in the UK economy.”

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