The government has announced a number of measures that it claims will lower the cost and impact of new regulations on businesses.
According to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the introduction of 26 new laws has been deferred until after April 2011, to “take economic conditions into account”, postponing £3.5bn worth of associated costs.
The government will also publish a programme of planned new regulation over the next 18 months, in a bid to increase transparency and help businesses prepare themselves, as well as committing to reducing the regulatory burden on business by a further £6.5bn by 2015.
A new independent body, the Regulatory Policy Committee has, also been created to scrutinise the impact of regulation on businesses and ensure that the benefits justify the costs.
Business minister Ian Lucas said the measures were part of the government’s “ambitious” agenda to change the way it regulates.
“This new package builds on the benefits delivered to date by tackling the immediate concerns of business in the current economic situation, and sets out a new commitment to cut ongoing costs over the longer term,” he said.
“The cost of regulation is a serious concern to business. That is why we have looked at the timing of measures to give real help to businesses now, taking out immediate costs over the next 18 months.”
Mike Emmott, employee relations adviser at the CIPD, welcomed the delay of the introduction of the Agency Workers Directive, giving more rights to agency workers, until October 2011.
He said: “This piece of legislation risks undermining the UK’s flexible labour market. It is also not in the interests of many agency workers who choose this model of employment for the choice and flexibility it gives them, and who don’t want the agency workers market to be disrupted and distorted by this legislation.
“Implementing the directive in the early stages of a recovery could have been particularly damaging, as firms will be willing to take on temporary workers at an earlier stage than they are willing to commit to permanent appointments.”
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2009