The
Business Secretary has
announced he intends to cut red tape and bureaucracy. Credit where credit
is due; this is acknowledging a very real problem, costing the country perhaps £30
billion a year. So it’s a start.
Part of the
BIS statement specifically addresses costs arising from EU legislation.
Specifically, we read,
Ministers will also be taking a rigorous approach to tackling
EU regulations and gold plating. The Government will engage earlier in the
Brussels policy process; take strong cross Government negotiating lines; and
work to end so-called ‘gold-plating’ of EU regulations so that when European
rules are transposed into UK law it is done without putting British business at
a competitive disadvantage to other European-based companies.
It is
frankly astonishing that ministers can think that the system has been running
to date without Government being engaged sufficiently early in the Brussels-law
making process.
But a word
of warning for the wise: we have been here before.
Roger
Freeman’s key brief in the John Major cabinet as Chancellor of the Duchy of
Lancaster was specifically to address the issue of business burdens in
legislation. That included trying to tackle EU costs; this was already acknowledged
as a massive contributor at the time, both in its own right and as a key
trigger for civil service gold plating. Everyone knew what was going on: there
was madness in the method.
Despite the
best of intentions, nothing came of Freeman’s efforts. Civil service
methodology was not reformed. The dog has gotten that little bit older, while
we are back to teaching the same trick.
The Government clearly has aspirations to get
to grips with the bureaumancy of law making. But will it - and more
pertinently, given the mechanics of Brussels, can it - succeed?
