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Richmond upon Thames Liberal Democrats:Covering the constituencies of Twickenham and Richmond Park |
Red tape reforms face public backlash
June 2, 2011 2:27 PM
• [May 31] Richard Tyler writes: VINCE Cable has warned that businesses could end up with more regulation rather than less from the Government's Red Tape Challenge campaign. The Business Secretary said that members of the public and consumer groups were using the Government website to lobby hard for existing regulations to be maintained or increased.
Opposition MPs have picked up the grass roots campaigns, labelling the Coalition's deregulation agenda "insidious" and accusing the Government of using the campaign to roll back environmental and consumer protections. The moves put pressure on the Prime Minister who has pledged to leave office with less red tape on the statute books than when the Coalition was formed. If the weight of public opinion tips in favour of keeping regulations, ministers will feel under less pressure to reduce red tape for businesses. Mr Cable told a business audience in Westminster last week: "One of our top priorities is to reduce that amount of regulation that small companies and start ups face, but please don't pretend this is easy."
He pointed to the Red Tape Challenge website and said: "Very perversely we are being bombarded by messages from the public saying please increase regulation." Mr Cable said messages from people who had lost "loved ones" in workplace accidents made clear their opposition to any reduction in health & safety regulations. Consumer groups were also co-ordinating responses on the site, he said . .
Caroline Lucas, the Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion, has led the questioning of the Coalition's plans in the Commons, asking Caroline Spelman, the Environment Secretary, what environmental regulations were coming under threat from what she described as the "insidious red tape challenge".
Ms Spelman replied: "I want to make it clear that there is no intention of relaxing existing levels of environmental protection. Nevertheless, it might be possible to improve their implementation arrangements."
One commentator on the Red Tape Challenge site, writing as The Dalwood Rocket, said: "Addressing market failure (for example where the costs of pollution are not reflected in the price of a product) is one of the things we elect governments to do. The government is there to protect wider society from the worst excesses of the business sector. This consultation should focus on making environmental regulation tougher and more effective, not on cutting red tape."
The Red Tape Challenge has received 18,500 comments . . [about half of the] comments address non-sector specific regulations like employment, environmental and health & safety law.
• Red tape reforms face public backlash [Daily Telegraph May 31]
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