§ Mr. Duncan SmithTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what progress has been made on the deregulation initiative over the last two years. [19731]
§ Mr. FreemanSince passing the Deregulation and Contracting Act 1994, we have made considerable progress in removing unnecessary burdens on business including:
- repealing or simplifying more than 1,000 regulations, more than 500 in the past year—examples include:
- 44 deregulation orders submitted to Parliament benefiting business and charities by over £100 million a year. This includes amendment to the Trustee Investment Act which will benefit charities by up to £40 million a year
- 500,000 of the smallest companies no longer need to have their accounts audited
- over 100 sets of out of date health and safety requirements are being amended or repealed
- abolishing or simplifying 148 business licences
- commitment to reduce the burden of Government surveys by 25 per cent. by 2000 saving business £17.5 million a year.
- Introduced business-friendly enforcement procedures giving business new rights when enforcement action is taken against them in key areas such as health and safety and the environment.
- 125 local authorities have undertaken to establish local business partnerships to promote co-operation between local business and local regulatory authorities
- new regulation subject to an analysis of benefits and compliance costs. Ministers must certify they have read a compliance cost assessment and risk assessment and are satisfied that benefits justify the costs and for regulations implementing EC legislation that they have applied the European law checklist to prevent unnecessary gold plating and double banking.
- Direct Access Government launched as a pilot one-stop shop service eon the Internet for accessing regulatory information and forms
- in Europe, the simpler legislation for the internal market initiative has produced concrete proposals for improvements in certain areas including trade statistics and construction products.