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Social site to fight red tape

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11th Apr 2011
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The Coalition government is continuing its commitment to crowdsourcing policy ideas with a new Red Tape Challenge website.

As the front page explains, every few weeks the site will publish regulations affecting a particular sector or industry for public review.

The public will then have an opportunity to comment on the regulations and suggest ideas for reform.

“Once you’ve had your say, ministers will have three months to work out which regulations they want to keep and why,” the site promises. The philosophy behind the online red tape review is that burdensome regulations will be done away with. If ministers want to retain any, they have to explain the reasons why.

The first industry to benefit from the public consultation is retail, which is divided into sections covering consumer information, weights and measures, trading conditions and Sunday trading. The retail challenge will run until 5 May. After that, hospitality/food/drink will take over, followed by road transportation (20 May), fisheries and inland waterways (2 June) and manufacturing (16 June).

There is also a section dedicated to cross-industry regulations covering topics such as health and safety, environment, employment and company law, and pensions.

In a video interview with BusinessZone’s Dan Martin, business secretary Vince Cable admitted that business regulations are “out of control” and need a proper system of challenge.

Cable denied the suggestion that previous government attempts at crowdsourcing had come to nothing. “We’ve had a lot of feedback on public procurement [which is] being taken seriously and being acted on,” Cable said.

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By lawmaniz
14th Apr 2011 12:22

Regulations - the Coalition Government loves them.
It's complete hogwash by the Coalition Government to say or pretend that it is interested in hearing the views of people about which Regulations should be revoked or not be put in place. The truth is that in practice the Coalition Government is enthusiatically endorsing most of the laws and Regulations put in place by the previous New Labour administration.

An example is the Claims Management Regulation Unit. Has your car or household insurance increased lately? One reason is the activities of the Claims Regulator Unit that was a creation of the New Labour Government. All businesses which pursue compensation claims for people other than the businesses of solicitors and barristers now have to pay a high initial fee to register with this Ministry of Justice agency and, therafter, high yearly fees in order to carry on a business that pursued various civil compensation claims for individuals who have suffered injury or loss from the negligent acts or omissions of others.

As you might be aware, these claims have actually increased, not decreased, in the few years that the Claims Management Unit has existed. Costs too have risen in part due to the extra bureaucratic burden to which these businesses are now subjected.

The idea of setting up the Claims Management Regulation Unit was to stop non-law claims businesses from poaching work from solicitors and barristers but it has made no difference whatsoever. Needless to say, being a creation of New Labour, the Claims Regulation Unit is a loss-making agency. Is the Coalition Government concerned about this loss or the increasing tide of red tape? Not on your nellie!

On the 5th April 2011, Jonathan Djanogly, MP (a millionaire and former city solicitor and now a minister in the Ministry of Justice) issued a statement about the Claims Regulation Unit (and health and safety regulations) by saying that 'The Government is committed to keeping the implementation and operation of policy in all of these areas...'

The question that remains is that if the Coalition Government is happy to endorse and follow New Labour's love of red tape, will it set up similar Management Regulators for all trades and professions in the UK and require all those in business - from accountants to zip repairers to register and pay an initial fee plus annual fees in order to lawfully continue to carry on their businesses? This extension of red tape and regulation would be a nice little earner for the Coalition Government, wouldn't you say?

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