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In 2005, Philip Hampton published his report, Reducing administrative burdens: effective inspection and enforcement). In it, he noted that although the current regulatory system in the UK contained much that was good, there were still problems with regulatory burden, particularly in terms of costs both in time and money of regulators' inspections and enforcement activities.
In particular, Hampton argued that the use of risk assessment is patchy and, where it has been used, it has not been as thorough and as comprehensive as it should have been.
Following the recommendations of the Hampton Report in 2005, an initial draft of the Code was produced in March 2006. The draft code was placed on the Better Regulation Executive website for informal consultation and comments. In February 2007, an updated version was produced, taking into account comments on the March 2006 draft. Since the end of March 2007, we have consulted informally with regulators and other interested parties to solicit their comments and views on the new draft.
Therefore, the current draft on which we are now consulting is a revision of previous versions and takes account of the extensive comments we have received from a range of stakeholders.
It is proposed that for those regulators in the scope of the Code, the enforcement concordat will no longer apply.
The Government intends that the Code will be laid before Parliament during the autumn of 2007, coming into force on 1 April 2008.