New Website Puts Red Tape Under The Spotlight

A new website has been launched as part of the government's 'Plan for Growth' that enables businesses, trade associations and members of the public to offer ideas and suggestions on how to address the complex, sometimes overwhelming, amount of regulation which they encounter.

The government wants to know about rules that really waste your time and money or better still, ways of tackling the issues that will make life better for you and your customers. Over 6,000 comments have been received in the first week of the new website, including those calling for changes to, and the end of, many of the rules and regulations affecting business.

The site is asks for feedback on what you think should happen to the regulations that affect your industry and why, being as specific as possible:

• Should they be scrapped altogether?
• Can they be merged with existing regulations?
• Can they be simplified ÔÇô or have the bureaucracy associated with them reduced?
• Have you got any ideas to make these regulations better?
• Do you think they should be left as they are?

After backlash from a number of NGOs and members of the public, who were concerned that a number of flagship environmental and equality policies would be put at risk, the government is now keen to stress that the presence of a particular regulation or law on the website should not be read as implying any intention on the part of the Government to remove that regulation or law from the statute book.

Although the site is open for views on general regulations affecting businesses, from 16th June to 23rd of June, the site will also be focusing on comments specifically relating to the manufacturing sector. The BWF represents its members' views to government, the construction industry, the wider public, and increasingly, to the international community. If you wish to discuss any of the regulations affecting you, then feel free to get in touch and we would be delighted to offer you our assistance. We also provide members with an influential voice on the technical issues affecting the industry and are heavily involved in the development of woodworking and joinery product standards in Britain and Europe.