"Free market" law creates extra regulation (France)

In a post dated 1 February, this blog discussed the use of RIA in one of the most important pieces of new economic legislation, the "loi Macron" named after minister of economy Emmanuel Macron. After the vote last week in Parliament, which required the government to engage its full constitutional power to get it passed in spite of opposition from within its own ranks, Euractiv gives a clear account of the possible impact of this law designed to boost activity and growth, and concludes that the attempt to 'liberate' the economy 'ends up adding new regulation'. An extract from Euractiv (18 February): "designed to show the European Commission that France is serious about reform, will also submit parts of the economy to a glut of new regulations. The first chapter, meant to 'liberate' growth, has introduced a host of new rules, including new and even more complicated tariff structures for some regulated professions, for example notaries." A December article in the Economist also explains the French government's dilemma, caught between its socialist membership of believers in state intervention to redistribute wealth, and the constraints resulting from the European free market. It seems that again, in this catch-22 situation, extra bureaucracy has again been adopted as the way out. The RIA procedure did not apparently help in any way to secure the influence of rational economic decision.

Deregulation on the agenda for Iraki KRG judges

Following up on previous workshops held in Erbil and Granada in 2012, a new session was held in Ankara earlier this month to complete a cycle of professional training in legislative drafting for judges of the Kurdish region of Iraq (KRG). Funded by the World Bank, supported by the Turkish government and moderated by your blogger (C.H. Montin), this workshop brought together the same judges belonging to the Shura Council (Consultative Assembly) of the KRG and a team of international experts. The judges and experts exchanged information and views focused on the "cutting edge" of better regulation: deregulation techniques supporting the improvement of the regulatory environmnent of business. Course members actively discussed the relevance of national practice of neighbouring countries (Lebanon and Turkey) as well as advanced legislative techniques presented by D. Macrae (UK) and E. Maurice (Lithuania), and sought to draw lessons for their own work. The course was given a practical illustration by visits to the Turkish Constitutional Court and Council of State. Among the techniques examined at this session the most promising were held to be: the "guillotine", statute law revision and in-built review and sunset clauses. Some of the moderator's slides on "Techniques" and "Deregulation" are also made available on this blog.

For a very good introduction to the subject matter, see "Tools and Approaches to Review Existing Regulations" published by the World Bank which gives an overview of the numerous techniques and good examples of their implementation.

Canada legislates One-for-One Rule and releases Red Tape Scorecard

(Announcement) On January 29th , Treasury Board President Tony Clement introduced the Red Tape Reduction Act (Bill C-21) in Parliament to enshrine the One-for-One Rule in law (see news release). The One-for-One Rule is the cornerstone of the Canadian Red Tape Reduction Action Plan. On January 28th, The Government of Canada released its first Scorecard Report outlining the substantial progress made in cutting red tape for Canadian business, under the Red Tape Reduction Action Plan (see news release).

3000 rules on business to be scrapped (UK)

The Coalition will have been the "first government in history to end its term in office leaving behind fewer regulations than existed when it came to power", said the British PM to the Federation of Small Businesses, in a conference well reported and discussed online. Watch David Cameron explain the policy and give some examples of existing "pointless" red tape which still need to be scapped on the BBC site. "More than 3,000 rules affecting business will be dropped or changed, saving more than £850m a year, he told the FSB. They include 640 pages of cattle movement guidance, 286 pages of hedgerow regulations and 380 pages of waste management rules."

FR business organisation suggests new targets for red tape

How does French business view the UK "Cutting EU red tape" report? The president of MEDEF (employers' confederation) was recently commenting on the British report drafted by an independent business panel. This was an opportunity for this text to be made known in France.

President Gattaz recalled that simplification was one of the main commitments of his organisation's programme of work and said that what was required was a new mindset in the legislative and regulatory process. He was very interested in the methodology developed by the British to drive the internal process of simplification ("one in, two out"); simplification, to be successful, must be sought according to a rigorous methodology. To do this, MEDEF would propose to the French government and parliamentary concrete objectives: 

- reduce the stock of regulation by 5% a year, especially in the labor law, taxation, environment, urban planning, 

- improve the quality of new legislation, avoid frequent changes. 

For more, see links to the report and summary and recent critical comment, in previous posts. Source of this post: Enjeux.

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."

NY Senate passes regulatory reform

The New York State Senate passed 14 regulatory reform bills today as the first part of a major initiative, that includes statewide public forums, to identify and eliminate thousands of costly and unnecessary government regulations that inhibit job creation and drive up local property taxes.

The regulatory reform initiative contains inter alia the creation of a task force to review state rules, regulations, and public authorities and make recommendations for the repeal of ones that are determined to be unnecessary. The Task Force recommendations would be binding unless they are rejected by the Legislature.

The package is designed to create a more competitive environment for businesses so they can create new jobs and grow for the future. Along with the need to deliver relief from high taxes, burdensome and unnecessary regulations continue to be a major obstacle when it comes to revitalizing New York’s economy.

In addition, the Senate Majority Coalition approved 13 bills today, including legislation that would:

• Establish a task force to conduct a complete review of the State Administrative Procedure Act (SAPA) and regulatory review process;
• Eliminate 1,000 burdensome regulations on businesses;
• Give the Senate’s Administrative Regulations and Review Commission more oversight authority in the rulemaking process to ensure state agencies do not overstep their authority in implementing rules and regulations;
• Stop unfunded state mandates on local governments and school districts; and
• Require state agencies to provide more information on the costs and benefits of new rules.

Red Tape Blitz picks up momentum (Australia)

The Australian Government's ComLaw site publishes the "Attorney-General's (Spent and Redundant Instruments) Repeal Regulation 2013" which includes lists totalling 1000 regulations and other instruments repealed, in what observers call a "red tape blitz." Regulations repealed include the National Handgun Buyback Regulations 2003, which governed the purchase of outlawed weapons and other obscure instruments including marriage regulations that referred to unmarried men and women as ‘spinsters’ and ‘bachelors’. The oldest of the repealed laws was made in 1967. According to Attorney-General, the program aims to delete more than 12,000 this year. Minister for Finance and Deregulation, P. Wong indicated that the repeals followed amendments made by the Legislative Instruments Amendment (Sunsetting Measures) Act 2012, with the repeal instrument registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments now taking full effect. "The latest repeals were in addition to reforms through the COAG Seamless National Economy agenda, which the Productivity Commission had estimated would save businesses billions of dollars each year when fully implemented." For background see previous Sept 2012 post, and for comments, Public Service News article.

"Why regulations never seem to disappear?"

An interesting summary of an issue well-known to smart regulators: the tendency of all bureaucracies to secrete new regulation, and the difficulty of curbing that trend, by great expert Patrick McLaughlin, co-creater of RegData. Also note the creation in Kansas of an "office of the Repealer" as reported by The Economist.

France: alléger les coûts réglementaires sur les collectivités

Sous le titre "Normes: nouveau plan pour juguler l'inflation," la Gazette des Communes analyse le plan présenté au gouvernement français pour maîtriser la prolifération des textes normatifs qui imposent des charges aux collectivités territoriales. Alain Lambert et Jean-Claude Boulard, ont présenté, le 17 janvier, leur programme (incluant des objectifs quantifiés et un calendrier) et la méthode pour s'attaquer aux 400 000 normes qui étouffent les collectivités territoriales. Le président de la Commission consultative d'évaluation des normes, président (DVD) du conseil général de l'Orne et le maire (PS) du Mans, s'étaient vus confier le 19 décembre 2012 cette mission, désormais inscrite dans le cadre de la modernisation de l'action publique (MAP). Ainsi, une liste de normes appelées à être abrogées devrait être proposée le 15 mars 2013.
Parallèlement, une proposition de loi portant création d'une Haute autorité chargée du contrôle et de la régulation des normes applicables aux collectivités locales, portée par Jacqueline Gourault et M. Jean-Pierre Sueur et déposée au Sénat le 12 novembre 2012 est, quant à elle, discutée à partir du 28 janvier 2013.

UK Gov claims success of deregulation

According to a press release from BIS on 17 Dec.," the UK government is winning the war against red tape." The Fifth Statement of New Regulation reports that the overall closing balance for 'One-in, One-out', the Government rule that dictates that every new cost on business must be balanced by an equivalent saving, is predicted to be around £836 million since January 2011. These figures are independently verified.
Additionally, the statement shows that the Government expects to reduce the regulatory burden by around a further £83 million between January 2013 - when 'One-in, One-Out' is replaced by 'One-in, Two-out' - and June 2013. Expected measures include reforms to environmental regulation, employment law and consumer law.

Recent deregulatory measures include:

• Changes to modernise and simplify the registration of company charges, saving £21.9 million.
• A series of changes to building regulations to reduce cost and complexity for industry.
• Less heavy-handed Health and Safety regulations for low-risk businesses including shop and offices.
• Improvements to speed up processes covering adoption and foster-carer eligibility.

Deregulation agenda in France

Yesterday (18 Dec.) in line with previously announced plans, the first meeting of the interministerial committee on modernisation of public action confirmed the objectives and ways of controling the regulatory flow, with a set of measures seen by some observers (for example Acteurs Publics article) as a "plan antinormes", something close to a deregulation agenda. This initiative is however primarily aimed at helping local government authorities face the constant stream of new rules from the centre, publicly denounced as excessive by President Hollande, and now the prime concern of better regulation in France.
The array of tools to be used include a better evaluation of public policies, and a "one-in, one-out" rule already announced by President Hollande.
For the wider context of administrative reform, see the PM's declaration closing the CIMAP meeting (VB.)

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.

New anti-regulation measures (UK)

Julian Farrel from the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) informs us of the useful online publication of a new statement concerning the official regulatory policy of the British government: the 4th Statement of new regulation seeks to show "that the government's One-in, One-out rule continues to result in a reduction in the net cost to business and civil society organisations."
For a summary of the policy and of the miscelaneous new measures, see the press release of 17 July.

Australian results in deregulation

An AAP despatch dated of today, summarizes the Australian governement's recently released annual update on its deregulation agenda. The report  - "Streamlined, Effective, Productive: an annual update on the Australian government deregulation agenda" - considers the regulatory review and reform measures of 2011 and 2012 that aimed to improve regulations for business, the community, consumers and the environment.The report details the partnership between the Commonwealth and the states and territories under a program involving 27 reforms due for completion by December 2013. Other measures include recent federal regulation for more efficient inspection of meat exports, a proposed new standard definition of a flood for insurance and the development of new pollution standards for light vehicles. The report noted figures from the Productivity Commission which showed 17 of the 27 major Commonwealth-state regulatory reforms could boost the nation's economic output by $6 billion a year.

Queen outlines new regulatory reform

On 9 may, the British Monarch outlined the Government’s priorities for the coming Parliamentary year in the official state opening of Parliament. Projected legislation includes among many other changes such as the House of Lords reform, an Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill which ams to :

• Overhaul the employment tribunal system, and transform the dispute resolution landscape.
• Improve the effectiveness and efficiency of competition enforcement and the competitiveness of markets, by strengthening the regime and improving the speed and predictability for business.
• Set the purpose of the UK Green Investment Bank and ensure its independence.
• Strengthen the framework for setting directors’ pay by introducing binding votes.
• Extend the Primary Authority scheme, reduce inspection burdens on business and strengthen the legal framework for sunset clauses on regulation.
• Repeal unnecessary legislation, cutting the burden on business and citizens.

 

A BBC news item reflects political comments : The prime minister told MPs: "Let me say exactly what this Queen's Speech is about. It is about a government taking the tough, long-term decisions to restore our country to strength. "Dealing with the deficit, rebalancing the economy and building a society that rewards people who work hard and do the right thing." Labour leader Ed Miliband said his party would support measures such as parental leave and a Green Investment Bank - but the Queen's Speech contained nothing for the young unemployed, working families and "millions of people who don't think the government is on their side".

London attacks EU 'red tape factories'

In an article published today on the Telegraph, the Business Secretary V.Cable, announces measures backed up by the 3rd meeting in April, in Vilnius, of the Like-Minded Group of 15 economic ministers « committed to rolling back excessive regulation emanating from Brussels and to expanding the Single Market. » For a recap of previous meetings of the group, see Enterprise Lithuania article.
« The tide is turning against EU bureaucracy, Britain is no longer a lone voice in the push for deregulation and a flexible labour market. » The ministers’ common purpose is « to close down the red tape factories of Brussels.» The Business Secretary singles out for detailed criticism the Working Time Directive (WTD), which sets a 48-hour limit to the working week. Mr Cable calls it « a heavy-handed, one-size–fits-all approach … adopted, with unintended perverse outcomes. The directive incorporates the idea that is most clearly expressed in the French 35-hour week: that work should be compulsorily restricted and shared out, whether or not it suits the needs of individual workers or firms. »
In in earlier comment, the Lithuanian PM had justified the strengthening of the internal market by the need for the EU to «get ready for intensified competition with China, India, Brazil, and other fast-growing economies»
According to Reuters, a new Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill, expected to be unveiled tomorrow, is part of the government's measures «to protect British firms from further EU regulations» and boost the economy, which recently slid into its second recession since the financial crisis.
The group includes the UK, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Slovenia, Ireland, Romania, Malta, Slovakia, Denmark, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and the Netherlands.

Economist reviews a year of regulatory reform in the US

This week's Economist contains a summary of the Obama Administration's action in RR, under the title "Deleting Regulations" and focusing on the work achieved by Cass Sunstein, the "red tape Czar" and head of OIRA. Mr Sunstein had in particular been commissioned to implement the January 2010 executive order asking agencies to slim down the rule book. Departments have responded with 580 proposals which are being scrutinised. But over the same period, the Obama administration has published many new regulations (194 texts with an economic impact of $100m or more. The article summarizes the cultural and procedural obstacles to deregulation and lists current options:
- one-in, one-out (UK style), an idea supported by Republican candidate Mitt Romney;
- a truly independent scorer for regulatory costs and benefits, (like ACTAL in the Netherlands);
- a board of influential stakeholders (like in Australia and elsewhere) to help break political deadlocks;
- a full-time advocate for regulatory rollback;
- automatic “sunsets” of laws

One in, two out policy proposed (France)

Quite a few countries are sensitive to the seemingly irresistible upward spiral of "legal production", also called legislative inflation (see for instance the post below about the US.) Several countries have adopted, following the UK example, the rule by which any ministry wishing to introduce a new law or regulation should identify a text for deletion (one-in, one-out).
This blog has on several occasions reported on the French president's commitment to reducing the number of norms, sometimes referring to "deregulation" or "dé-légiférer" (see "France" category.) Last Sunday, the president went one step further, announcing in an interview his determination, if re-elected, to impose a "one-in, two-out rule", to reduce the stock of some 200,000 texts which would be costing the economy some 5% of GDP.
The idea has been floated once before, in New South Wales (Australia) in a proposal of the NSW Business Chamber.

"Over-regulated America" (The Economist)

This blog has recently been trying to keep up with the fast pace of regulatory reform discussions in the US. But how effective is all this activity? In its Feb 18-24 number, The Economist takes a critical view, concluding that "the home of laissez-faire is being suffocated by excessive and badly written regulation" a trend aggravated by recent reforms, in spite of the White House's regulatory policy.
A recent article entitled "Over-regulated America" takes a dispassionate view of this flurry of regulatory reform zeal, with picturesque examples of laughable excesses, like the Dodd-Franck law of 2010 on financial services reform (848 pages, without counting implementation schemes), part of the Wall Street Reform. The Obama health care reform (2010) also backfires: every hour spent treating a patient in the US may be creating at least 30 minutes of paperwork, often more.
The newspaper recommends that the CBA be done by an independent watchdog, that sunset clauses be used systematically, and most important, that the drafting highlight broad principles, instead of trying to cater for all possible situations.
In the same issue, there is an article on the recent drift of cost-benefit analysis, where the benefits of new legislation are systematically over-stated ("the rule of more"), an indictment of the RIA system in operation.
See also an equallly critical and inspiring previous article in the same newspaper, reported on this blog on 16 May 2011.