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Simplification 2010 – 2015: Call for Evidence

Overview

Laws and regulations play an essential role in making Britain a prosperous, fair and safe society by both supporting economic development and providing essential rights and protections for citizens, consumers, workers and businesses.

However, regulation carries costs as well as bringing benefits. Managing the balance between these costs and benefits is key to delivering the joint goals of economic prosperity and fairness and safety. To be effective, regulations need to be well designed, communicated and enforced; striking the right balance between benefits and costs is an essential part of designing good regulations.

The Government believes that action to reduce the cost of regulation on business, without diminishing its policy intent, is an important aspect of its approach to supporting growth. We are on track to deliver a net reduction in administrative burdens on business of £3.3 bn by 2010, but work to reduce the burden of compliance with regulation does not stop there.

The Government has set itself an ambitious new target for the period 2010-2015 to ensure we go further – to reduce the regulatory burden by a further £6.5 billion. As set out in the Pre-Budget Report, we have already identified potential savings of over £1 billion; but in order to ensure we focus our attention on the areas that really matter, we are seeking input from business and other interested parties to help define the new programme.

Future Programme

In October 2009, the Government announced a target to reduce the regulatory burden on business by a further £6.5 billion annually by 2015. This includes:

• A further net annual reduction of £1.5 billion in the administrative burdens of compliance with regulation, including unnecessary paperwork and record keeping that businesses are required to comply with; and
  
  
• £5 billion annual reduction in policy costs, those costs business has to bear to deliver the policy goal of regulation.

The Government wishes to ensure that this initiative does not just deliver these savings, but does so in the areas where they will deliver the most benefits for business and the wider economy. In line with this ambition, we are considering simplification by themes, rather than on a department-by-department basis, as we believe this better represents how businesses see and feel regulation. We believe that this approach will lead to proposals which will cut across departmental boundaries and deliver greater impact. The themes identified so far, together with their existing scopes, are:

• Built Environment – this theme will consider the regimes which affect how we shape and manage the places people live, work and raise a family, including all aspects of the planning and building regulations, home buying and selling and the regulation of private and social housing. Within this, we intend to have a particular focus on existing regimes which impact on the homebuilding sector, ensuring they are proportionate and, when taken cumulatively, do not unduly constrain housing supply.
  
  
• Business Law - regulatory issues that businesses face in relation to setting up and operating a company or another corporate form, including auditing, provision of better guidance, accounting requirements, insolvency regimes and data protection.
  
  
• Consumer Issues – considering existing consumer law / retailing goods and services, basing it on clear principles everyone can understand and making compliance easier, especially for small firms. Enforcers will have wider powers to tackle rogues but businesses trading fairly will face fewer inspections.
  
  
• Employment and Skills –a range of issues in relation to employing people, including obligations within employment law in general (for example pensions provision, disability benefits, sick pay, statutory maternity pay, compliance with equality legislation, working time), on-line services through Business Link and DirectGov, pre-employment checks and integrated employment and skills services.
  
  
• Health and Social Welfare – this will consider areas such as medicines, research and development (clinical trials), private healthcare, social care, opticians, pharmacy services, health protection and prevention, including alcohol and tobacco, and animal health and other areas related to public health which impact on business.
  
  
• Natural Environment – this will consider the full range of environmental regulation, for example, air quality, chemicals, climate change, environmental land management, local environmental quality, pesticides, sustainable consumption and production, waste, water, marine and fisheries and rural and sustainable development.
  
  
• Transport – this will consider simplification of policies and regulations specifically covering transport operations and transport service providers, including, for example, airports and airlines, shipping, ports and provision of freight and rail services (including transport specific safety and employment legislation). Simplification of policies and regulation relating to the manufacturing of transport equipment including vehicles, aircraft and shipping will also be included where they relate to safety.
  
  
• Workplace Health and Safety – this will include regulations, along with approved codes of practice and guidance, that primarily deal with the protection of workers in the workplace.

Call for Evidence

The Government believes it is vital that, throughout the lifetime of the programme, businesses of all sizes and other interested parties are able to contribute their specific suggestions as to where regulations could be simplified, or alternative interventions could be used, in a way that will reduce burdens and costs, while continuing to deliver the intended outcomes. To begin this conversation, we are seeking initial views, covering the policy areas identified above and any other areas you believe the Government should consider, where the following questions apply:

• Which regulatory activities do you believe place disproportionate costs on business, compared to the benefits delivered? Please describe the costs imposed.
  
  
• What action could the Government take to remove or reduce these costs without undermining the policy intention of the regulation(s) concerned? What benefits would this action deliver?

We are particularly keen to receive suggestions on which business processes could be improved and how. Please be as specific as possible, setting out something about the process itself, for example, what you have to do, who you have to talk to or give information to, and how many, or which forms or procedures you have to complete. The more specific and evidence-based your ideas, the more useful they will be, and the more likely they will make a difference.

Submissions may be submitted by email to: simpler2015@bis.gsi.gov.uk. The deadline for responses is Friday 12 February 2010.

In parallel to this, the Government plans to engage with stakeholders through a range of discussions and events, covering each of the themes, to enable stakeholders to put their ideas directly to the officials leading the theme groups.

All submissions received will be considered within the appropriate theme. The Government will report on how stakeholder input has helped shape its future simplification programme in due course.