Government takes action to reduce red tape
A series of measures introduced this week will create a fairer environment for honest businesses, freeing them up from red tape, while at the same time cracking down on rogue firms, the government has claimed.
Hailed as a "clear step forward", the new Local Better Regulation Office has been set up, with Graham Russell appointed as chief executive. Its job will be to "support local authorities to make regulation simpler and more effective", the Cabinet Office said.
A draft bill has been tabled this week, aimed at making it easier for councils to enforce trading and health and safety regulations. It should ensure that regulations are consistently enforced across different areas and may give local authorities the power to issue on the spot, parking style fines on businesses.
Commenting on the changes, Sally Low, director of policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, said "We welcome these proposals as a means to take forward the government's commitment to ensuring a lighter touch on compliant businesses, but be tougher on rogue traders,"
But the British Retail Consortium cautioned that the new legislation may be abused as en easy source of cash for local authorities. "If local authorities are allowed to issue fixed penalties to businesses they may abuse them to raise revenue," said Kevin Hawkins, BRC director general.
"This could be the new parking ticket. Councils will focus on easy targets with quotas for fines-issued rather than the real crooks who are harder to tackle but a bigger risk to customers."
Hawkins called for two separate measures to protect businesses from overzealous councils; assurances that any revenue raised from the penalties will be collected into a national fund, rather than go to the local authority; and that the authorities would be able to levy penalties once it is shown that the breach has been corrected.
"We must not have local authorities ignoring rogue traders and rip-off merchants because there's nothing in it for them, while picking on largely compliant businesses for very minor breaches simply because it’s profitable," added Hawkins.
Date:15 May 2007
|