§ Lord Inglewoodasked Her Majesty's Government:
(i) what are the aims and objectives of the Department of Trade and Industry deregulation unit and (ii) whether the costs of conformance to business of both statutory regulations and good practice are included within the unit's brief.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Baroness Denton of Wakefield)The central deregulation unit in the Department of Trade and Industry is responsible for driving forward the Government's strengthened commitment to the deregulation initiative across Whitehall. The aim of the initiative is significantly to reduce regulatory and administrative burdens on business and hence reduce the effect of such burdens on the competitiveness of individual companies and of UK industry as a whole.
The initiative has three main objectives:
reduction and simplification of existing regulation, by cutting unnecessary regulatory requirements and administrative procedures as well as minimizing the compliance and enforcement costs of essential regulation, whether arising from central or local government;
effective and proportionate new regulation, by ensuring that assessments are made of risk and potential costs and that such assessments, together with an understanding of the views of business, are 55WA taken into account in the framing, implementation and enforcement of new domestic and EC-based regulation and in negotiations on EC proposals; and
greater official awareness of the needs and views of business, by ensuring effective and timely consultation on specific regulatory proposals and genuine dialogue on regulatory issues in general.
The deregulation unit has a specific remit to encourage the use of Compliance Cost Assessments (CCAs) in judging whether regulation is justified. It was agreed at the Prime Minister's seminar on deregulation on 2nd February 1993 that CCAs should now be published alongside legislative proposals.