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Cutting Red Tape – A Beggar’s muddle

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22/04/2016

Cutting Red Tape – A Beggar’s muddleThis week I attended the Better Regulation Delivery Office event on “Cutting the red tape”.  This particular event focussed in on establishing a clear message on what businesses are thinking about and the way Local Authority regulation works and could be improved.  As legislation is pushed out to the regions as part of the devolution agenda, this significant issue is becoming more so.

For the meeting, I did a quick list of the organisations that hold our sector to account (many of whom are locally led):
 
– Trading Standards
– Building Control
– Approved Inspectors
– The Health and Safety Executive
– The Planning Officer
– The Conservation Officer
– HMRC
– The National Measurement Office
 
The list goes on and feel free to embellish below in the comments section!!   Attending the meeting was a wide range of businesses and trade bodies representing breweries, health foods, nutritional supplements, retail and more.  Despite the diversity of our collective voice was very much in accord.    

It is impossible to debate anything at the moment without someone blaming the EU and there is little doubt that much Red Tape does emerge from the EU, but National and Local Authorities’ cannot fully absolve themselves of blame.  The responsibility for the implementation via National Laws and notably enforcement falls within their remit and it is often here that it is turned into a beggar’s muddle.  

The role of Government, National and Local, is to lead and inspire where appropriate and legislate where necessary.  Whilst the relative merits of individual pieces of “red tape” are debatable, once it is law we can strive to improve and change it, but the enforcement is critical.  Adhering to a growing cacophony of regulation can be painful, costly and damaging (particularly to the competitiveness in those sectors exposed to trade ).  But, once we have absorbed the pain, taken the risk, invested as necessary and done what is right, it is nothing short of a gross injustice when not properly or effectively enforced.  Without appropriate enforcement it only serves to punish the good, tilt the playing field in favour of the less scrupulous and undermine the very market that legislation is set upon improving.  The management of the Construction Products Regulations (the legislation that drives CE Marking) by Trading Standards stands a very sorry example of this.  

I stress that this is not me having a go at trading standards, quite simply, they are grossly underfunded to succeed.  Across enforcement this underfunding is endemic (look at the cut backs in building control and the impact this is having) and a siloed mentality tends to compound this.  

The meeting also gave me opportunity to raise our concerns about cross- department enforcement i.e. when planning, conservation and building control meet.  Anyone supplying into this space will understand and share the frustration sand I will spare you my rant!  Enforcement requires consistency and clarity.  The red-tape consultation must address this point.  We need problems to be lifted out of siloes, solved collaboratively via clear, consistent and efficient processes (akin to ADR) and effectively establish national case studies that can set precedent.  

I am encouraged that the Civil Servants in attendance had such a clear and resounding message from the entire room and hope and will do what we can to drive this home.  We will be putting a formal response in too, and keen to add and embellish with any views you may have, but don’t feel shy in taking part yourself – vent your frustrations (remembering to copy us in so we can help amplify).  The process is pretty simple and the more voices that point out cutting the red tape is a start, but we should also be making sure that where red tape exists it should trip up the non-compliant, not simply strangle the good companies!

You can respond to the consultation here https://cutting-red-tape.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/local-authorities/

Iain McIlwee, BWF CEO
 

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Member of Construction Products Association
National Specialist Contractors Council
Passive Fire Protection Federation
CITB
The Alliance for Sustainable Building Products