In its latest six-monthly update on regulation, released yesterday, the Government has claimed it has saved businesses more than £1bn through its drive to eliminate unnecessary red tape.
The Statement of New Regulation details all regulation, including EU measures, which is expected to come into force between 1 January and 30 June 2014, as well as all regulation removed – including under the government’s One-in, Two-out rule and the Red Tape Challenge.
The Statement confirms that the government has reduced the net annual cost to business of regulation by £1.2 billion and is currently meeting the challenging One-in, Two-out rule for regulation.
The latest measures that will make it easier to do business include:
- No longer requiring businesses to fill in waste transfer notes, allowing other forms of evidence to be used instead.
- Making it easier for businesses to comply with employment law. This includes improving the TUPE process, requiring parties in employment tribunals to attempt to settle claims out of court, and allowing businesses greater flexibility in how they respond to questions from potential victims of discrimination.
- Making it easier to choose a company name and simplifying rules on how this is displayed at premises, on websites and in written communications.
“Alongside low taxes and sound economic management, government action to reduce bureaucratic burdens is helping businesses grow,” said Business Minister Michael Fallon. “But small companies still struggle with damaging red tape – much of it from Europe. So we’ll continue to demand faster reform in Brussels as well as across Whitehall.”
New regulations to be introduced include BIS measures on extending the right to request flexible working to all employees, which will encourage a more engaged and motivated workforce and modernising the consumer credit framework, to bring consumer credit up to date with a changing market.
To increase the pace of de-regulation, the government introduced the One-In, Two-Out rule in January 2013. Departments are now expected to offset any increase in the cost of regulation to business by finding deregulatory measures of at least twice the value.
The government remains on track to deliver an overall reduction in the cost to business of new regulation, over the course of this Parliament.
