The summary report, published by the Better Regulation Executive, detailed
how more than 280 changes to regulations have helped save UK businesses
around £2.9 billion a year so far. New simplifications introduced in
the last 12 months, which have made life simpler for businesses, include:
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creating a more flexible way for employers and employees to resolve
disputes at work;
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no longer testing every spirit optic; and
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digital tachographs for HGVs.
Ian Lucas, Minister for Business and Regulatory Reform,
said:
“Simplification is making a real difference to the everyday lives
of businesses, helping to make things as simple as possible, saving
more than £8 million a day, every day.
“Individual measures may look small but it is overall impact that
adds up to real savings. And support from the business community has
helped make sure that savings to businesses are felt on the ground.
“But the programme also shows real change across government in
its attitude towards regulation. Delivering the right business
environment to promote growth relies on creating a flexible regulatory
framework that minimises costs to business but ensures essential
protections and rights are in place. Better regulation, with
simplification at its core, is making that possible.”
An independent panel including representatives from the business community
has tested whether simplification measures were effectively communicated to
businesses and were felt in the ground. In May this year, this Panel again
scrutinised the Government’s delivery and validates 77.5
percent of the Programme’s gross savings.
The Government is on track to meet its target of cutting the administrative
burden on businesses by 25 per cent by May 2010 that will deliver an
expected £3.3 billion in annual net savings. The report also
details how government has delivered more than 30 per cent net reduction of
the amount of information requests from central government on front-line
public sector workers, such as nurses and police, and how it has cut more
than £1.3 billion in wider costs of complying with regulation.
The Government recently announced a new commitment to cut the costs of
regulation further, by £6.5 billion by 2015. This was part of a
package of measures to strengthen the management of regulation with the
publication of the Government’s regulatory programme until April 2011
and the creation and set up of a new independent scrutiny body to advise on
the costs and benefits of new regulation.
The Government announced in the Pre-Budget Report that it has already
identified potential savings of over £1 billion towards the new
target. Recognising the importance of ensuring that the programme focuses
its attention on the areas which are of greatest concern for business, the
Government is today launching a call for evidence, to enable business and
other interested parties to feed in suggestions of which regulatory
activities place disproportionate costs on business, compared to the
benefits delivered, and to propose action that will reduce or remove these
costs.
