"Common sense" cuts to red tape (UK)

The business minister announced on 1 October an array of "common sense" measures to simplify reporting on workplace accidents and other corporate reporting requirements, and protect companies against unfair risks and litigation. The reforms coming are part of the government’s drive "to make the UK the best place to start and grow a business. They respond directly to issues raised by business, including through the Red Tape Challenge, which invites firms to give their views on which regulations should be removed or improved."  For the detail of the measures, go to the UK Government press release.

Consultation on deregulation closes 16 Sept (UK)

The Red Tape Challenge website announces a consultation launched by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the draft Deregulation Bill, chaired by Lord Rooker, on the draft Deregulation Bill and the policies underpinning it. The Joint Committee comprises six MPs and six Peers. It will take written and oral evidence and make recommendations in a report to both Houses. The Joint Committee is required to make its report by 16 December 2013.
The Call for Evidence and the form for submitting written evidence are also available from the same page. What is the content of this bill which refers to the strong term "Deregulation" ?
(extract from the bill):"The key measures in the Bill remove unnecessary burdens on three main groups:
1/ Freeing business from red tape including by:
- scrapping health & safety rules for self-employed workers in low risk occupations, formally exempting 800,000 people from health & safety regulation and saving business an estimated £300,000 a year;
- putting a deregulatory 'growth duty' on non-economic regulators, bringing the huge resource of 50 regulators with a budget of £4bn to bear on the crucial task of promoting growth and stopping pointless red tape; and
-  making the system of apprenticeships more flexible and responsive to the needs of employersand the economy, as recommended by the Richard Review. The Deregulation Bill will remove a lot of prescriptive detail in the current legislation and clarify the employment status of apprentices.
2/ Making life easier for individuals and civil society including through:
- reducing the period for which someone has to live in their social housing to qualify for Right to Buy and Right to Acquire from five to three years, expanding their availability to a further 200,000 households; - scrapping heavy-handed fines for people who make mistakes putting out their bins;
- deregulating the showing of "not-for-profit" film in village halls and community centres, making it easier for small charities and community groups to hold "film nights"; and
- devolving decisions on public rights of way to a local level, which will cut the time for recording a right of way by several years and save almost £20m a year through needless bureaucracy.
3/ Reducing bureaucratic requirements on public bodies including:
-  removing prescriptive requirements on local authorities to consult and produce strategies; and
- freeing schools from pointless paperwork and prescriptive central Government requirements."

Decentralised, contractual policies for growth (UK)

A new "initial guidance document" (more will be published in September) dated 25 July  further clarifies the UK Government's growth policy, and how it relies on Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), contractual agreements between local authorities and business, to deliver results. The policy had first been defined in the 'Government's Response to the Heseltine Review'. The core proposition of Lord Heseltine's report is a decentralised approach that is intended to "break Whitehall's monopoly on resources and decision making," to empower Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) to drive forward growth in their local areas. Alongside this, the report makes a number of recommendations that strengthen the underpinnings of long-term growth, from changes to the way in which Whitehall supports growth, to strengthening partnerships between government and business, and business and education. This guidance fleshes out how this process is to be enacted: "Through Growth Deals, LEPs can seek freedoms, flexibilities and influence over resources from government, and a share of the Local Growth Fund to achieve their identified growth priorities. In return, the government expects LEPs to demonstrate that they are committed to the growth agenda, including by developing ambitious, multi-year strategic economic plans. We also expect the local authority members of LEPs to prioritise economic development and work collaboratively across the LEP area."

New "Accountability for Regulator Impact scheme" (UK)

On 24 July, the UK government announced a new scheme to give businesses a stronger voice in influencing how regulators change the way they work, chiefly by improving the RIA process.

Under the new Accountability for Regulator Impact scheme non-economic regulators that are planning a significant change in policy or practice – for example, by updating guidance or inspection regimes - will assess and quantify the impact of that change on business. 

They will then share and discuss these assessments with trade associations and other business representatives before carrying out the proposed changes.

The measure is part of the government's drive to make sure the enforcement of regulation places minimum burdens on industry while delivering essential protections and creating a level playing field on which companies can compete fairly. 

This new initiative is part of the UK government's programme to make the enforcement of regulation less burdensome, along with the a 'growth duty' – a proposed statutory duty for regulators to consider the impact of their activities on growth - and a revised Regulators' Compliance Code.

French gvt reduces the number of advisory committees

The high number of standing advisory committees is one of the specific traits about the French approach to consultation: but once set up, the committees tend to survive their usefulness and continue to cost the taxpayer and the officials in charge of supporting them. This is why we regularly see "clean-up" operations with the government taking the axe to the forest of committees. Following ad hoc inventories and deletions from 2002 to 2005, a more general approach was adopted by a décret dated 8 June 2006, which reviewed the operating rules valid for all committees, making it more difficult to create a new body, time-limiting its existence (5 years), and streamlining its operation. In an apparently drastic move, the décret also programmed the elimination of all existing committees to take effect three years later, unless they had been re-instated in the meantime. This approach was necessary, but does not per se improve the quality of the consultation process. Also, since then, new ad hoc bodies have been created, a new clearing operation had become necessary. It has now been conducted within the simplification policy, and enacted by government in a décret approved by the Council of Ministers on 22 May. For more on the Government's approach, please refer to circular (standing instruction) dated 30 November 2012.
The system suffers from the sheer number, but also from a lack of effectiveness of the consultation process, with insufficient flexibility to adjust to different topics and stakeholders. The "open" consultation method, which employs a variety of channels, including IT supported media, to collect stakeholder views, was legalised by the 5th simplification law (17 May 2010) in its article 16 but no overall assessment of the policy has yet been conducted from a better regulation point of view.
A good example of application of the new open consultation is being given with a series of public hearings on the "energy transition", involving 1500 citizens, or the consultation on the modernisation of environmental law.

"What the Budget means for business" (UK)

A good idea to present "What the Budget means for business, innovation and skills" on the occasion of this very important day. It's well worth visiting the Budget 2013 page on the official site, which summarizes seven measures, among which the last one concerns red tape:
"Cutting red tape: The government will launch a second phase of the Red Tape Challenge to help cut red tape for businesses. 1500 regulations have already been identified to be amended or scrapped. This second phase will look at the whole regulatory system – including laws, guidance, compliance, and enforcement, through short targeted reviews. We will ask businesses what specific problems we should look at before the launch in the summer of 2013."

Consultation guidelines up for comment (France)

New, well drafted guidelines on consulting enterprises and professional organisations have been published for consultation by the French ministry of industrial recovery (deadline: 15 March). Once formally approved, this "Consulter pour mieux réglementer" manual could well become the French language reference for consultation. The draft offers itself as a complement to the "guide de légistique" which covers the legal requirements for issuing new regulation. It follows up on the Conseil d'Etat's 2011 status report on consultation "consulter autrement, participer effectivement." It breaks down the process in four stages from identification of stakeholders to feed back, which are handled in four practical fiches.

New directions for administrative simplification (France)

On 10 January, the French government launched a new administrative simplification programme for companies, at a first meeting with the representatives of the business world. Four ministers belonging to the economics branch ushered in the new agenda, which implements the "Competitiveness Pact" adopted in November and confirmed in the Modernisation of Public Action strategy delineated on 18 December.

It is interesting that Parliament will be associated to the policy, with an MP (Mr Thierry Mandon) dedicated to support the definition of the progamme.

The range of the strategy is illustrated by the list of seven priority projects already launched by the Government:

• the "Tell us once" principle to enable companies to avoid multiple submission of the same information to different administrations;
• a single social contribution return form ;
• simplification and acceleration of procedures related to business real estate operations;
• a single portal of public grants to enterprises;
• a new effort to limit over-transposition (gold-plating) of Community law into French law;
• introduction of the SME-test to assess the impact of new legislation on small business and micro-enterprises;
• reduced barriers to export for SMEs and VSEs.

Participants received a very complete draft consultation methodology which will be published by this blog as soon as it is finalised.

For more information about the meeting, see the official communiqué, and for some comment, an article (Le Moniteur).

A programme of administrative simplification for citizens, comprising 26 measures, was announced in December.

New concept: "Regulatory charter" (Midlands, UK)

Can you use regulation to promote a better relationship between regulators and business? Judging from a recent experience in the Midlands (UK) conducted in connection with the Better Regulation Delivery Office , a consensual approach, based on discussion and agreeing on principles enshrined in a "regulatory charter", may seem preferable. The Charter called ‘Better Business for All, ’ developed after consultation with business, features the following key elements:

• Businesses to have a single point of contact for local regulation via a web portal that has been developed and branded ‘Talk to Reg’ (due for launch in September)
• Regulators to tailor advice and approach to match the business lifecycle – i.e. start-up, growth stage and mature
• Regulation made simple – a straightforward explanation of the ‘who, why and what’ of regulation

The Charter, which is available in full from the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce website asks regulators to commit to be more open and to proactively support local businesses to grow. Firms can expect to experience less red tape and bureaucracy, quicker and easier access to information and a greater understanding of their problems. For more, see press article.

New advisory body to cut red tape (India)

  Last Friday, the government of India set up a 21-member panel, including representatives from the government and regulatory authorities as well as respected industry leaders to suggest ways for reforming regulatory environment for doing business in India. The panel is being set up at a time when concerns are being raised by the industry and investors, from India and abroad, about perception of policy paralysis and lack of required economic reforms.
The World Bank and International Finance Corporation 2012 report on the ease of doing business ranks India a lowly 132 out of 183 countries, well below the other BRICS and most of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation countries. The committee, headed by the former Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) chairman , would prepare a detailed report within six months and submit the same to the government, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) said in a press release. "There is a need to conduct an in-depth study into the entire gamut of regulatory framework and come out with a detailed roadmap for improving the climate of business in India in a time bound manner," the release said. The panel would comprise representatives from Sebi, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Ministries of Corporate Affairs, Finance, Power, Petroleum, Highways, Commerce and Industry and Urban Development. Easing of business environment mandates extensive examination of regulations in different areas such as financial and governance reforms and liberalised policy framework, MCA said. For more, see article by Economic Times of India.

Australian Company Directors call for deregulation

The Australian Institute of Company Directors (a business lobby) has just released a 76-page ''working paper'', titled Business Deregulation: A call to action, along with a ''discussion document'', media release and a request for 'stakeholders' to lodge a submission on the topic.
One of the questions asked in the discussion document is: ''Are you aware of Australian regulations which are redundant, poorly designed or excessive?''
The AICD's initiative comes after the Productivity Commission released a full report last December on Identifying and Evaluating Regulation Reforms and published numerous reports over the past five years on reducing the burden of unnecessary legislation.

Advise the Advisor (US)

As has been practiced in many other countries, the US government has just launched a new website to collect feedback from business about priorities for cutting red tape.
"Advise the Advisor" (Cass Sunstein) asks business owners across the country to say which regulations are "standing in (their) way." Which rules should be eliminated, streamlined, or made more effective? How can reporting and paperwork burdens be reduced ? What are the best ways to cut regulatory costs? This consultation is in keeping with the January 2011 Presidential order directing executive agencies to undertake a review of regulations in order to figure out what is working and what is not, and where appropriate, to streamline or eliminate ineffective, overly burdensome, and outdated rules. Over two dozen agencies responded with regulatory reform plans, listing more than 800 initiatives, and the new consultation campaign hopes to usher in another batch of measures.

Commission consults on smart regulation

Smart regulators, sort out your ideas and get ready to make proposals ! The European Commission is calling for contributions to take take stock of two years of SR. See the new consultation, opened 27 June, and closing 29 September. Thank you Lorenzo for pointing it out to us.

“In its 2010 Communication on "Smart Regulation in the EU", the Commission set out a strategy to improve the way it designs, enforces, evaluates and revises European policies and regulations to ensure they benefit citizens and businesses.

Nearly two years later, the Commission is taking stock of the progress made and drawing lessons from its experience. This stakeholder consultation aims to collect your views and proposals to inform a Commission Communication reporting on Smart Regulation implementation.

The consultation focuses on how:

• To improve the quality and relevance of proposed and existing EU legislation
• To ensure the effective implementation of EU legislation
• To ensure the views of those affected by EU legislation better inform policy
• The European institutions and Member States can best collaborate to achieve the goals of Smart Regulation. “

Simplifying pub management (UK)

This blog has already reported on the British Governement consultation of stakeholders on which administrative procedures needed to be simplified, with an emphasis on practical difficulties experienced by companies "Focus on Enforcement". The originality is to open a time limited consultation on a very specific issue, such as Chemicals, Food Law, and, as from today for six weeks Pubs.
"The Government is encouraging anyone involved in running a pub, particularly a community pub, to feed in their experiences, good and bad, of dealing with local authorities and other regulators as part of the Focus on Enforcement campaign. Experiences with regulators might include dealing with paperwork, inspections or advice from regulators you come into contact with. The campaign allows comments to be posted anonymously." This seems to be a highly focused and efficient way of getting feedback from the business community. The public may even suggest future areas for investigation of red tape.
See the press release for details.

Guide to consultation (OECD)

The OECD has just published online a "Practitioners Guide on public consultation in the rule-making process" is part of the first phase of the MENA-OECD Initiative to Support the Palestinian Authority (PA). Drafted by Miriam Allam and Hania Bouacid from OECD, the Guide assesses the regulatory consultation process in the Palestinian Authority, and presents good practices examples from OECD countries and practical guidelines. A very useful guide for all experts engaged in delivering effective consultation in support of smart regulation.
Several other technical resources have also been uploaded, and can be found on the OECD MENA website.

New Executive Order on reducing regulatory burdens (US)

Yesterday, the US President has signed a new Executive Order on “Identifying and Reducing Regulatory Burdens” making it a continuing obligation of government to scrutinize rules on the books to see if they really make sense. The Order directs agencies to seek public comments on rules in need of review. To promote priority-setting, the Order directs agencies to emphasize reforms that produce significant quantifiable savings. To promote accountability, the Order requires agencies to provide the public with regular reports on their past efforts and their future plans -- with details and deadlines. These new instructions build on, and institutionalize, the President’s Executive Order of January 18, 2011, which first called for retrospective review of rules on the books (the regulatory “lookback”). In parallel, the Council of Economic Advisers is issuing a report on the “lookback.” The report outlines the progress made to date. It notes that agencies have identified over 500 reforms and that a small fraction of them, already finalized or formally proposed to the public, will be saving more than $10 billion over the next five years. The report emphasizes that we need continued analysis and public participation to identify rules that should be streamlined, improved, or eliminated. See also Cass Sunstein’s analysis of the package (tip from Daniel T.)

Red Tape Taskforce created in Queensland

A Red Tape Reduction Taskforce has just been set up in Queensland. It will report by mid July to the state government "about what regulations can be done away with," whether they come from the state or the local level, though most texts are expected to come from the state.
The taskforce brings together council representatives as well as experts in planning, building, environment health and licensing. Its focus will be to identify red tape and regulation that can be removed to help small business. The objective is "to cut red tape by 20 per cent ... or some 18,000 pages."
For background, see the brochure from the Queensland Chamber of Commerce and Industry. A September 2011 report from the Productivity Commission gives an overview of the regulatory role of local government (some 580 entities in 8 states).

MP calls for more transparency in policy making (France)

The electoral campaign is a good time to make proposals to involve the public in a more transparent and efficient way in public policy making. In this last week before the election in France, an MP (from the goverment party) gave senior officials from local governement his views on the current consultation methods in a paper for Lettre du Cadre. Based on his assessment, Mr Planchet made proposals to curb "legislative inflation" (a general concern in France) by adopting a EU-style RIA and consultation scheme under scrutiny of an independent authority. For the most important reforms, the consultation should be held on a very wide basis, as a "national public debate" that could be triggered by a petition from a sufficient number of citizens. The existing Commission nationale du débat public would be in charge of organising such widescale consultation which would take inspiration from the Danish Board of Technology.

Australian (new) Business Advisory Forum

The involvement of business in orienting regulatory reform can take many forms. Earlier this month, the Australian Government announced the creation of a Business Advisory Forum to advise on deregulation, according to the official press release. Business leaders of the nation’s biggest companies will join state and territory leaders in a new deregulation dialogue . Senior business figures on this Forum will have two main roles:
• To advise Governments on how best to coordinate and progress the remaining areas of competition and regulatory reform; and
• To nominate new areas of regulatory reform that will help lift productivity and drive investment, therefore growing businesses and creating new jobs.
Small business will also be directly represented on the Forum, given smaller firms often disproportionately feel the impact of regulatory burdens. 
The forum will work alongside the Council of Australian Governments to identify regulations that are hurting economic activity across state boundaries, such as inconsistent standards for tradespeople who move interstate , to unlock a combined $4 billion in productivity gains.

Comments in the press highlight the need for the Governement to make peace with the business world after several key reforms meeting difficulties. The Australian recalls that  "the creation of the forum, after extensive lobbying by business, follows a report last month from the Council of Australian Governments' Reform Council, which warned that 12 key reforms were at risk including harmonised occupational health-and-safety laws, a national trade licensing system, a nationally consistent approach to the imposition of personal criminal liability on company directors, national regulation of the legal profession and energy reforms. " See also Sydney Morning Herald for more comments.

New red tape reduction commission (France)

On 19 March, the minister for SMEs, F. Lefebvre, launched the "red tape reduction commission" composed of entrepreneurs, stakeholder organisations and governement officials (for details see previous post). The commission's job is to suggest options to reduce administrative burdens on companies and to monitor proposals made at the Assizes and in the recent simplification law.
At the launch of the new commission, the minister gave an update on two major projects: the simplification of the payslip (by harmonising the basis of social contributions by 2015) and the "electonic safe" for companies. This scheme seeks to avoid asking companies several times for the same information by storing data online under their control, with a first phase over the next 12 months covering 35 forms from 10 ministries.
For more, see official press release. This announcement was the last of several steps taken to reduce regulatory costs for business, and specially SMEs.
A more detailed update on simplification had been given by the minister of budget on 16 March: the 5th and last batch of 30 simplification measures widens the list of electronic services provided by public administrations, among which declaring a change of address, or registering on the electoral roll.
On 14 March, a new unit was created by Governement decision to support the simplification policy and the reduction of administrative burdens, in the prestigious Economic and Financial General Control (ministry of finance). The unit will also monitor international developments in Better Regulation and verify the quality of impact assessments.
Finally, on 12 March, the minister for SMEs announced 28 measures to reduce burdens on micro-enterprises (crafts) under the principle "no activity, no charges" announced by President Sarkozy.