Government launches red tape bill

2006 is seen as a key delivery year for better regulation

The government has launched a new bill aimed at making it easier to remove or simplify regulations, cutting red tape for UK firms.

At the moment it can take a long time to reform the bureaucracy embedded within laws because many such changes have to go through Parliament.

The powers in the new bill should let government departments make simple "light-touch" changes to regulations.

It is estimated that red tape cuts may boost the economy by £10bn a year.

Bureaucratic cuts

Departments such as the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will be expected to use the powers within the bill to cut or reduce unnecessary bureaucracy by up to 25%.

The bill has been welcomed by business organisations:

"Complicated and costly regulations are one of the main barriers to business growth, especially for smaller companies," said David Frost, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce.

"Employers will now be looking for the government to fully implement its programme and achieve a net reduction in the costs of complying with regulation."

Fewer forms and inspections

As part of its plans to tackle the burden of complying with regulations, the government has commissioned consultants KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers to measure its impact on UK organisations in terms of time, money and effort.

They are expected to publish a report in March, the results of which will be used to set targets for cutting red tape.

Last year the government set up the Better Regulation Executive to help tackle the issue of reducing bureaucracy.

It also accepted the findings of a review by Philip Hampton, which called for the 31 of the 63 national regulators to be merged into seven, a 25% cut in the number of forms being sent out and a cut of one million in the number of annual inspections.