So the government is going to ask business yet again, what rules it wants to scrap. Another in a long line of “red tape challenges” and I’ve lived through a few. https://twitter.com/AlexJFMorales/status/1346905139135864835

The thing is, every time government did this (at least during my time), businesses came back with few ideas about the red tape they wanted to be cut.

Chances are, the same thing will happen again. (If you keep doing the same thing, the same way, expect the same result).

What is often more important to business is not removing regulation that already exists, but managing the process for introducing new regulation. It is change that creates the biggest cost.

This is one of the many reasons why Brexit is such a nightmare for business. It brings about enormous, and ongoing change, with no time to prepare, creating considerable and unpredictable new costs.

This is what will drag businesses down, not regulations that are already on statute, where the costs have been absorbed, the systems put in place, and the necessary staff trained.

There is no avoiding the fact that the mountain of red tape that Brexit creates is a kick in the teeth for business. But there is also no avoiding the fact that these new burdens are here to stay. So what should government do?

A good place to start would be to return to the fundamentals of good governance. This doesn’t mean speeding government up, as the PM appears to want, but slowing it down.

Slowing it down so that policies are properly considered before they are implemented. Slowing it down to consult, to develop impact assessments, to allow scrutiny, to really think things through, &, perhaps, on occasion, conclude that the best thing to do is to do nothing.

This isn’t rocket science, but fundamental principles of better regulation, principles the govt. is, in theory, signed up to. These have been a core part of govt. work since the Labour era, but in the chaos since June ‘16, have been repeatedly ignored.

These call for 12 wk, public consultations. Critical to stress test ideas and promote better decision making. Also critical for transparency, scrutinising govt, and promoting better democracy.

They also call for impact assessments, which force the govt machine to really scrutinise their proposals. And they help Parliament do the same.

They also require govt. to implement regulation on only two dates in the yr (emergency regs aside). This allows for effective business planning.

And it requires all regulatory activity to be proportionate, consistent, targeted, accountable and transparent. All eminently sensible.

The framework is all there - units in every dept. tasked with overseeing application of better regulation principles, a central unit responsible for embedding better reg in govt., an ind. advisory body providing advice & scrutinising evidence etc - they just need to be used.

So rather than wasting time searching for red tape to scrap, govt. shld knuckle down & ensure that the intro of new regs. (& there will be a lot of this as the many Brexit creases are ironed out) is done properly. Don’t rush, do it right, & make sure there are no surprises.