LBRO consultation on priority outcomes signals change of tack for regulatory services

The Local Better Regulation Office (LBRO) has issued a consultation on five proposed priority regulatory outcomes, paving the way for a potentially significant shift in approach for English local authority regulatory services.

The move comes as the government announced the outcome of a review of the LBRO, which – subject to consultation and Parliamentary approval – will see the regulatory delivery organisation replaced by a streamlined body that is part of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

This organisation will “build on the expertise of LBRO’s staff and continue the expansion of the Primary Authority scheme”, DBIS said, adding that special governance arrangements would be put in place in order to retain its independence.

The proposed priority regulatory outcomes published for consultation, which would replace narrower national enforcement priorities developed since the Rogers review of 2007, are to:

• Protect the environment for future generations by tackling the threats and impacts of climate change
• Improve quality of life and wellbeing by ensuring clean and safe public spaces
• Help people to live healthier lives by preventing ill health and harm and promoting public health
• Ensure a safe, healthy and sustainable food chain for the benefits of consumers and the rural economy, and
• Support enterprise and economic growth by ensuring a fair, responsible and competitive trading environment.

“By setting outcome-focused priorities, local authorities are empowered to use local discretion and autonomy to select the most appropriate ways to meet the outcomes in their locality,” the consultation paper – available here – said.

It added: “Achieving better outcomes depends on the careful allocation of resources across a range of regulatory activities, such as advice and guidance, education and awareness campaigns, and intelligence sharing, not simply traditional enforcement.”

Local authorities – and their teams in trading standards, environmental health, licensing and fire safety – were also best placed to assess which tool, regulatory or not, would best achieve the priority outcome, it added.

The LBRO said the consultation document reflected the government's intention “to create the conditions to enable effective and accountable local delivery, while local authorities use their understanding of their communities to deliver the outcomes”.

It added that the selected priorities also reflected the issues about which local people and businesses are most concerned, “including the quality and safety of the local environment, quality of life issues such as housing, noise and anti-social behaviour, and the hygiene and safety of local retail outlets”.

LBRO chairman Clive Grace said: "Central government wants to devolve power, and local government wants to take it. So central government must not prescribe –instead it should simply create the conditions for local delivery and accountability to flourish.

"Priority regulatory outcomes… provide clarity about the outcomes that matter to Government and ensure that regulatory activity is focused on delivering them."

Business Minister Mark Prisk said LBRO’s successor organisation would work closely with local enterprise partnerships “to find the best way to tackle red-tape at a local level and share this knowledge”.

The Primary Authority scheme, which enables a business operating across council boundaries to form a partnership with a single local authority in relation to regulatory compliance, will continue to be promoted. In January the LBRO announced plans to pilot application of its principles to support for small businesses.

As well as administering Primary Authority, the new body will continue to look at simplification of the regulatory system. However, its third function – directly promoting improvement in the delivery of local authority regulatory services – will be discontinued. The body will, the government insisted, work to disseminate good practice.

Prisk said: “The endless rules and regulations that pour out from Government has choked off enterprise and stifled economic growth for far too long. Businesses, local enterprise partnerships and regulators have to work together to tackle local bureaucracy and find a solution that works for everyone.

“This new organisation will be the driving force to make sure that happens. That way we are freeing businesses to concentrate on what matters; strong local economic growth that is not restrained by red tape.”

DBIS said the results of the LBRO review had been welcomed by the Welsh Assembly Government. “These proposals will mean continuity for further work to secure efficiency and innovation within the public sector in Wales, benefiting both citizens and businesses,” it added.

Philip Hoult