Ministers call for evidence of "inconsistent and over-zealous" enforcement

The government has extended its Red Tape Challenge by calling for evidence of “inconsistent and over-zealous” enforcement of rules and regulations.

It has also announced plans for a series of reviews of specific regulatory sectors to ensure their enforcement arrangements are appropriate.

Launched by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (DBIS), the latest Red Tape Challenge initiative calls on the public and businesses to “say where tick-box regulation, multiple inspections and conflicting advice is getting in the way, harming their business and preventing economic growth”.

DBIS wants submissions to the challenge's website on the following questions by 31 August 2011:

• "Which aspects of enforcement do you find most difficult to deal with and how could things be done differently?
• What impact do these problems have on your business?
• Do regulators recognise where you have made efforts to comply? What more do you think could be done to ensure regulators take your efforts into account?
• Is it easy for you to appeal or complain about the way regulations are enforced?
• Do you have any examples of good "common sense" enforcement where you feel that a regulator has really done its best to understand and work around the realities you face as a business?
• Is enforcement flexible enough to keep pace with the way your business is developing?"

The government has also published a set of principles that it expects all regulators to follow as well as a consultation on the future of the Local Better Regulation Office and extension of the Primary Authority scheme.

The discussion paper envisages an enforcement strategy built around three basic principles: greater accountability; recognising and promoting good practice; and greater transparency.

The principles are designed to put “common sense and strong communication” at the centre of the government’s approach to enforcement, and recognise the efforts businesses have made to comply.

"We want to give businesses the means to make a reality of 'earned recognition'," the paper said. "We will do this by requiring regulators to take account of businesses' efforts to comply with regulations and to adjust their enforcement plans accordingly. We want to create positive incentives to recognise and promote best practice; and we want to deter those who seek competitive advantage, or pose a real material risk, by flouting the rules."

Ministers said they wanted to encourage a “new trusting” relationship between regulators and businesses, which would allow regulators to focus their resources on higher risk organisations.

Greater transparency would be achieved in part by strengthening and extending the Regulators' Compliance Code, which sets out performance standards for enforcement authorities.

The government said it would also carry out a programme of reviews of specific regulatory sectors to ensure that enforcement arrangements are "appropriate, proportionate, fit for purpose and appropriately risk-based".

These reviews will start "from the business perspective" and will establish a robust mechanism for identifying where regulators are underperforming, where enforcement is not working effectively and where there is scope for reform. "This will include asking whether specific regulators should still exist and perform the functions they do," the paper said.

The LBRO consultation would see the organisation abolished as a public body and reconstituted as part of DBIS. Its role will be to deliver the Primary Authority scheme, and to provide a forum for business to “have their say at the heart of the regulatory system”.

The government said it would also like Local Enterprise Partnerships to act as another route for providing accountability and driving improvements at a local level.

Calling for comments on “the good, the bad and the ugly side” of how regulations are enforced, Business Minister Mark Prisk said: “When nearly two-thirds of businesses believe that a ‘tick box’ culture exists, we need to act.

“Inspections and enforcement are the most noticeable way in which business experiences regulation. The Red Tape Challenge has already highlighted a number of ways in which compliance problems are getting in the way of businesses, but we weren’t getting enough information on the problems. That’s why we’ve made this natural extension to the Red Tape Challenge as a direct response to the public’s comments."

The LBRO consultation is available here. It closes on 16 September 2011. http://www.bis.gov.uk/consultations/regulatory-enforcement-strategy