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This is the latest update about what is happening in the UK to implement the Services Directive effectively. We have a lot of work underway to ensure that the Directive is implemented fully and consistently by the deadline, which is now less than six months away! More information can be found on our website at www.berr.gov.uk/servicesdirective, which we will continue to update in the coming weeks and months.
New Department
The new Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is responsible for implementing the Directive in the UK after its creation by the merger of BERR and DIUS (the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills) – more information can be found here. In practice, this will have very little practical impact on implementation, and whilst there will be changes to our website and e-mail addresses, our existing BERR addresses will remain valid for the foreseeable future.
Draft regulations - update
On 12 May we published draft regulations, together with draft transposition note and draft final Impact Assessment, and we asked for observations by 9 June. We are now considering the responses we received and whether comments can be taken on board either in the drafting or in guidance materials, and will be putting revised regulations before Parliament so that they can be debated in the autumn. We will provide more information in due course.
Engaging with local authorities
In May we asked all local authorities in the UK to screen their locally used Acts, bye-laws, and other requirements that they place on service providers for compliance with the Directive. Whilst we have asked for responses by 30 September, we would encourage all local authorities that have not started this work to do so as soon as possible. Initial indications are that most local authorities will need to make relatively few amendments to their legislative requirements and administrative practices.
A series of “champion groups” are now being set up with LACORS to enable local authorities to discuss specific policy issues relating to implementation and contribute to further specific guidance and good practice: the first meeting will take place today (30 June). It is expected that the Champions' group will generate a lot of peer support and offer a way for authorities to communicate amongst each other.
In parallel to the Champions Group, other groups are being set up, in particular to focus on the Licensing Act 2003. This group will have its inaugural meeting soon.
We would like to thank all authorities who volunteered to take part in the Group. Unfortunately we could not include all volunteers in order to maintain a geographical balance as well as to get views from both urban and rural areas. The Group's findings will be published as soon as possible.
LACORS have now produced a set of documents about the Directive and its implications for local authorities that is aimed at managers and councillors – this can be found here.
Engaging with competent authorities
We have now published guidance material for non-local competent authorities – this can be found on the BIS website here. In addition, we have held several workshops to help competent authorities prepare for implementing the Directive.
Community of Practice – have your say
To support authorities LACORS and BIS are creating a new "Community of Practice", an online environment which will enable discussions and forums to keep going until the implementation deadline. Primary Liaison points will be notified shortly of this facility which is open to all staff working for local and competent authorities. But in the meantime if anyone is interested in joining, please go to www.communities.idea.gov.uk and type "Services Directive" in the "find a community" in the top right hand corner. Your application to join should be dealt with promptly.
Building the Point of Single Contact (PSC)
Development of the PSC is continuing. There has been visible progress across a number of areas.
1. Usability testing has taken place with authority staff around the user journey that occurs when service providers submit forms. The results will feed in to the final version of that competent / local authority journey.
2. As a result of the recent Request for Comments (RFC) exercise by SOCITM, 20 national forms for local authorities, covering England and Wales and in some cases Scotland too, are now being developed for the online forms system. The RFC attracted comments and email queries from 200 people and these were used to finalise the forms. SOCITM has just begun a second round of national form specification covering almost all of the in-scope local authority forms that remain for all parts of the United Kingdom. One form in the consultation, for licensing spectator sports facilities, will be consulted on further by BIS’s policy team in light of the comments received during the RFC.
3. User acceptance testing of extensions to Local DirectGov, which will be used to tie together the PSC and authority systems, will be taking place with around 10 authorities on Friday 3 July.
4. A pan-EU brand is being finalised and agreed by us and other Member States. Guidance on how this brand will be applied is being developed by a branding consultancy and the expectation is it will be made public by the end of July.
Payment and the PSC
Authorities supplying their own online forms service can use whatever online payment service they wish for fee collection, but for the BIS forms service, one of four payment engine suppliers must be used. The products available are from:
BIS and Businesslink are working with each supplier to ensure that appropriate help and guidance is available to existing customers and that appropriate products are offered to new customers. Authorities will be emailed with appropriate contact details shortly.
Progress in the rest of the EU
A short survey commissioned by the EC indicated that 25 of the 27 states responding had started building their PSCs. This survey was in preparation for the second PSC “jamboree” on 4 June in Brussels – this was an event for those working on building the PSCs in every EU Member State (as well as Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein) to discuss progress and issues.
A key presentation was given by the Netherlands passing on the lessons learned from their joint usability testing with the UK and Estonia. This testing involved SMEs from each country testing out prototype PSCs from the other two. Tina Sommer of the Federation of Small Businesses chaired the jamboree and helped keep the focus on the PSC providing practical help to the small service business.
Rolling out the IMI system
The IMI system is being developed by the European Commission to facilitate greater co-operation between competent authorities within the EU when dealing with cross-border service providers by enabling them to easily identify the most appropriate counterpart in another Member State and to exchange requests for information in a clear, efficient and secure way. The pilot stage of its development was launched earlier in the year and we would like to thank the group of competent authorities and local authorities that are working with us to test the system and to help ensure that it works effectively by the time all authorities start to use the system in December.
Some test cases are now being exchanged with other Member States. Any authorities not taking part in the pilot are encouraged to register, which will help to ensure the system meets their needs once IMI goes live at the end of the year.
