§ Mr. Anthony Steen (South Hams)I beg to move,
That leave be given to bring in a Bill to reduce the numbr of rules and regulations emanating from Next Steps agencies.Thank you, Madam Speaker, for your kindness in calling me to address the House. I seek the leave of the House to introduce the last in a trilogy of ten-minute Bills in order to draw attention to the onward march of the new bureaucracy, which has developed the knack of interpreting directives from Brussels so as to cause the maximum disruption to our business culture and to divert business energies away from job creation and towards dealing instead with bureaucrats whose principal aim is the over-zealous enforcement of rules and regulations.It is the interaction between our established civil service at Westminster and the over-zealous application by officials at local level that is delaying the upturn in our economy, and blocking those who desire to make this nation more successful.
Like Dutch elm disease, the new phenomenon strikes at the root of public service culture, whether with the 1,422 quangos in this country or with the next steps agencies. Officialdom is pushing businesses to the brink, and many go under, which in turn creates additional unemployment and further burdens on the benefits system.
John Perrett owns and runs his own boat construction company in Galmpton, not far from Brixham. For nearly half a century his "Western Ladies", former rescue motor launches from the second world war, have safely plied between Brixham and Torquay carrying thousands of passengers. Now, because of new safety legislation, all potential passengers must have, in addition to the buoyancy aids and lifebelts that they currently enjoy, lifejackets, not to mention inflatable liferafts. The requirements are so demanding that Mr. Perrett tells me that his boats will be crammed so full of lifesaving equipment that there will be little room for passengers. He also has to find room for an additional 12 flares, two additional hand-held VHF radios—in plastic bags, of course—and four hand-held smoke flares. Furthermore, all the lifebelts will have to be fitted with radar-reflective tapes. The cost will be more than £18,000.
Mr. Perrett is a reasonable man. It is only 4.5 miles across Torbay, and his boats are hardly more than half a mile away from the shore. Yet his boats are expected to maintain the same safety standards as ocean-going liners. If the unflinching chiselled face of bureaucracy does not mellow, Mr. Perrett will be put out of business after 45 years.
So it is with furniture. The regulations demand fire-resistant furniture in holiday homes but, oddly enough, that requirement does not apply to furniture in hotels, guest houses or bed-and-breakfast accommodation. The rationale is that guests staying in flats are in control of their furniture while hotel and bed-and-breakfast guests are not —as if the furniture has an independent will and wanders about on its own. As a consequence, holiday flat owners must fund replacement furniture. Many just do not have the money for that and are closing down.
Preventive legislation is all very well when there is plenty of money about. However, after four years of recession, people just cannot do what the public officials want them to. Devon county council found £160,000 of 696 public money to spend on preventive measures. It built two roundabouts just outside Kingsbridge in the middle of nowhere in order to reduce the likelihood of accidents, and it straightened roads to make them less dangerous. The council then approved an additional £1 million of traffic-calming measures to slow traffic.
Officialdom is not discriminating. It will hound the public sector as well as swipe at the private sector. Take the 2½ ft paddling pool in Stoke Gabriel village primary school on the banks of the Dart. Suddenly, after 25 years of the paddling pool's existence, the school received a bill for £1,800 from the National Rivers Authority. "If it is water, we'll charge you for it", said the NRA. The fact that the water is removed by buckets and the pool is refilled with rainwater every year is irrelevant. The NRA demanded payment. If I may say so, it was my exposure of the NRA's bullying tactics which caused it to change its mind.
We live in a Kafkaesque society which penalises the law-abiding and rewards offenders. Just take a look at village halls in rural communities which are run by volunteers—something that the Conservative party supports. Those people give their time voluntarily. The village hall is the pivotal point for the community. It provides for playgroups, over-sixties' lunches, badminton groups and youth clubs as well as a place for public meetings.
If the village hall community wishes to improve its hall by adding an extension, it must raise additional money from the private sources to pay the VAT. No wonder village hall extensions are now being built without interconnecting doors. Without interconnecting doors, the extension is considered to be new build and therefore no VAT is payable.
People who want to go from the old hall to the new extension when it is pouring with rain must dive out of one door and they arrive, soaked to the skin, through another door in the new extension. You may think that that is a little mad, Madam Speaker. If the village hall kitchen is to be improved, the environmental health officer arrives on the scene. Every year, a fire officer comes around and each fire officer interprets the regulations differently.
If a public entertainment licence is required, the village hall community must satisfy the magistrate that there are sufficient loos. To have a public entertainment licence, there must be a loo for the physically handicapped. There is one concession. Not surprisingly, the provision of a loo for the physically handicapped or disabled does not attract VAT. Not surprisingly, all village halls are now building loos only for the physically handicapped.
Quangos, next steps agencies and self-financing regulatory agencies are all forcing people to retrench and step back to look inwards rather than to look outwards optimistically to the future. Take my experience. Two weeks ago I parked my car in Waterloo place near Pall Mall to take a constituent to meet a Minister from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. I paid my money and put my ticket on the windscreen. I am told that five minutes later my car was lifted off the road and taken to a pound. Inside was my seven-year-old West Highland terrier who was left in the pound for over an hour, frightened, cold and unattended. Apparently, one of the car's wheels may have intruded into the adjoining parking place in spite of the fact that it was nearly 6 pm and there were more than a dozen empty parking spaces either side of the car.
697 The police say that the contractors are a law unto themselves. The more vehicles they take away, the more they earn. They rely on most victims not having the energy, money or determination to pursue them. Many of the teams prowl around the capital seizing people's cars—the modern equivalent of highway men, over-zealously interpreting rules and regulations for their own financial gain.
The unrestrained growth of rules and regulations has become a scourge of this country and a kind of creeping paralysis that threatens the fabric of our lives and invades the quality and freedom of our very existence. It is a menace which has, for far too long, been allowed to fester. It attacks the individual and wipes out small firms. It hampers recovery and inhibits enterprise. It causes hostility and creates anger, despair and exasperation. It inspires anti-social behaviour. It attacks the very fabric of our society.
Question put and agreed to.
Bill ordered to be brought in by Mr. Anthony Steen, Sir Michael Grylls, Sir Marcus Fox, Sir Michael Neubert, Sir Anthony Durant, Sir Donald Thompson, Sir Geoffrey Johnson Smith, Sir Keith Speed, Mr. Roger Evans and Mr. John Sykes.