The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) has called the government to task for failing to implement Regulatory Budgets that would have limited the cost of new regulation.
In a message to the Chancellor ahead of his budget speech this week, FDF director general Melanie Leech said: “Our member companies tell us that unwarranted and poorly implemented regulation is the biggest threat to their competitive position - including that which is disguised as ‘voluntary’ measures.
“We must halt the tide of unnecessary bureaucracy: what’s happened to the Regulatory Budgets that were launched last year as one way of controlling regulation?”
The government consulted stakeholder groups including businesses, trade bodies and regulators on these Regulatory Budgets from August 6 to November 12 last year.
Following the consultation, the government announced in parliament on April 2 that it had decided not to implement such a system at this stage.
Reading a statement from the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, the minister for Employment Relations and Postal Affairs Pat McFadden said: “Given the economic situation, it is important that the government focuses on delivering real help for business now. Following the consultation launched last year, the government has therefore decided not to implement a system of Regulatory Budgets at this stage. Rather we will undertake a programme of better regulation measures tailored to the present exceptional economic circumstances.”
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has set up a better regulation sub-committee of the National Economic Council to scrutinise planned and proposed regulation that will affect business. From the summer the government has pledged to published a forward regulatory programme enabling businesses to prepare better for future legislation.
The government has also promised to adopt new simplification targets for 2010-15 addressing regulatory costs on business and establish an External Regulatory Policy Committee to monitor its approach to businesses’ regulatory costs.
Leech also called for clarity on trade credit insurance, a three-year phase-in for the EU Temporary Agency Workers Directive and a delay to the proposed increase of employers’ National Insurance contributions in 2011.
She asked for a stimulus package to support the FDF’s Five-Fold Environmental Ambition to tackle climate change, financial incentives to encourage firms to invest in capital improvements and investment to address skills shortages.