Red Tape Challenge
The government has launched The Red Tape Challenge website, challenging the public to help cut unnecessary regulations.
View the Red Tape Challenge website.
For years red tape and bureaucracy have been allowed to spiral out of control. Excessive regulation is burdening businesses, hurting our economy and damaging our society.
Cabinet Secretary Gus O’Donnell has welcomed the initiative as an “opportunity to help drive changes”.
In a letter to all Permanent Secretaries he said he was making this work a “high personal priority” and will be meeting regularly to ensure real progress is being made.
Gus O’Donnell said:
It is essential that all government departments use the Red Tape Challenge to deepen their engagement with businesses, the public and all other stakeholders on regulatory issues, and ensure that creative and credible options for reducing regulation are put to ministers.
The Prime Minister has also written a letter to all government ministers stressing that he wants to “tackle regulation with vigour”.
The PM said:
There are over 21,000 statutory rules and regulations in force, and I want us to bring that number - and the burden it represents - down. Indeed, I want us to be the first government in modern history to leave office having reduced the overall burden of regulation, rather than increasing it.
Every few weeks the government will publish all the regulations in one specific sector or industry and ask the public to tell us what’s working and what’s not, what can be simplified and what can be scrapped.
Once we’ve received your feedback, ministers will have 3 months to work out which regulations should be kept and why.
From 7 April to 5 May the site is open for your thoughts on regulation in the retail sector – and how we can cut it.
Read more: Red Tape Challenge website