RT Hon Gordon Brown MP Chancellor of the Exchequer Praises Warwickshire’s Efforts to Reduce Business Red Tape
A new initiative to reduce the number of routine planned business inspections, developed and trialled by the Warwickshire Partnership and led by Warwickshire County Council’s Trading Standards Service was highlighted in a speech given by the RT Hon Gordon Brown MP Chancellor of the Exchequer to the CBI Conference.
The Retail Enforcement Pilot is testing new ways to deliver local regulatory services by co-ordinating and streamlining planned routine inspections carried out locally by Warwickshire County Council’s Trading Standards and Fire and Rescue Service’s and the Environmental Health Service’s of Stratford-on-Avon and Warwick District Councils and North Warwickshire Borough Council.
The Chancellor announced that by applying this new collaborative risk-based approach in the pilot areas of Warwickshire and Bexley, the number of planned routine inspections had been cut by up to a third, reducing the burdens upon business. Further, he went on to state that the pilot would now be extended to another 70 areas.
Mark Ryder, Head of Warwickshire Trading Standards commenting on the announcement said:
“I am delighted that Warwickshire Trading Standards and its partners were able to contribute, through their development and implementation of the pilot, so successfully to help achieve the Governments stated aims of reducing red tape and the burdens upon business.
Businesses in Warwickshire have already begun to see the benefits of the pilot, which has introduced a risk-based approach to routine planned inspections, through an overall reduction in routine visits by up to a third.
I am delighted that the Government has now decided to roll out the project to other local authorities across the UK - a testament to the efforts of everyone in Warwickshire involved in making the pilot such a success.”
The Retail Enforcement Pilot forms part of the Government’s stated aim to deliver better regulation by ensuring that businesses overall are required to fill out fewer forms, receive fewer inspections, are given better advice, and that there is better coordination between regulatory bodies.
The Pilot introduces a risk-based approach to business inspection, allowing businesses who comply with the law to receive a ‘light touch’ with fewer inspections and forms, thus enabling regulatory authorities to concentrate their efforts and resources on those rogue businesses that repeatedly flout the law.
Carrying out fewer planned routine inspections to lower risk businesses has meant that the Trading Standards Service is able to focus on more high-risk areas, for example sales of alcohol to children and doorstep crime and on educational and safety initiatives such as electric blanket testing, and talkingshop (interactive schools consumer and finance educational programme).
The Hampton Report published in March 2005 set out principles by which regulators should operate. The report’s recommendations were fully accepted by Government and this led to the development of the Retail Enforcement Pilot, an initiative designed to help deliver these recommendations.
On Tuesday 28th November, the Chancellor published a report ‘Implementing Hampton: from enforcement to compliance’ detailing progress made on the original Hampton Report.