Regulatory Reform Bill (Hansard, 27 November 2000)

§ Mr. Stringer

The Government have a number of proposals under preparation that could be implemented under the Regulatory Reform Bill. These are aimed atsimplifying the complicated fire safety rules; replacing the rules surrounding weights and measures with one new piece of legislation; allowing school governors to provide out-of-school child care for their own pupils and other children—this is something many schools have asked for; removing the remaining constraints on the number of partners that professions such as GPs, chartered surveyors and investment trust managers may have; removing from businesses the costs of having to adhere to two different sets of regulations surrounding unfair contract terms; removing the outdated regulations surrounding trading stamps to make it easier for business; making it easier for directory publishers to gain repeat business by simplifying the process for renewing directory entries; promoting innovation in the building and construction industry by not penalising those who do things in a different way from what is laid down in guidance; allowing longer for local authorities and others to transfer housing stock; simplifying, speeding up and making fairer the procedures for renewing business leases; placing local authority business tenants on the same footing with lease renewals as other business tenants; easing the administrative and other burdens on charities; making it easier to correct errors on birth and death certificates; simplifying the arrangements for undertaking building work at voluntary-aided schools; removing the requirement for some charities associated with the NHS to submit two sets of accounts; ending the renewal of manufacturers' and wholesale dealers' licences for human and veterinary medicines and introducing continuous licensing; putting cautions, reprimands and final warnings on the same footing as other criminal records, giving offenders a 'clean sheet' after a certain period; changing the rules about access to victim material in sexual offence cases to protect the victim and remove restrictions from lawyers; letting pubs open later on New Year's Eve from next year onwards; allowing restaurants to open later without a requirement to provide live entertainment; allowing a greater variety of gaming machines to be installed in bingo clubs; allowing customers to use banknotes and smartcards when playing with gaming machines.

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According to the procedure laid down in the Regulatory Reform Bill, all these proposals would be subject to thorough public consultation followed by rigorous scrutiny by both Houses of Parliament.

The Regulatory Reform Bill was published as Command Paper 4713 on 18 April 2000. It will be introduced as soon as parliamentary time allows.

We are also placing in the Library today a code of practice on written consultation and guidance on implementation periods for new legislation likely to impact on business. These measures also form part of the Government's strategy for minimising regulatory burdens on business.