HL Deb 29 July 1985 vol 467 cc150-1WA
Lord O'Hagan

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Which EC regulations and directives they propose in the White Paper Lifting the Burden should be repealed or amended; and what steps they have taken to set such action in motion.

Lord Young of Graffham

The White Paper specifically mentions restrictions on the level of the threshold below which firms are exempt from having to charge VAT and the regulation on lorry and coach drivers' hours as being regulations we consider should be amended to allow more flexibility. More generally, Chapter 6 of the White Paper refers to a list of some 40 proposed and existing Community regulations, including the two mentioned above, which we consider to be excessively burdensome in whole or in part. We have passed this list to the Commission and to other member states, and are pressing strongly for action to reduce the burdens these requirements impose.