DEFRA ANNOUNCE WATER THEME PROPOSALS Defra are proposing to scrap or improve 63% of the 168 water regulations crowd-sourced through the Red Tape Challenge web site. 84 will be improved, mainly through simplification, consolidation and improving implementation on the ground; 62 will be kept to maintain important environmental and public protections; and 22 obsolete regulations [...]

The Government launched its public consultation on the regulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) today. The consultation seeks the views of industry and the public on legislation to implement the key recommendations of the Wheatley Review of LIBOR, which the Government accepted in full last month. The consultation can be accessed by taking [...]

CONSULTATION: European Commission’s proposal for a Clinical Trials Regulation The Medicines and Healthcare products Agency (MHRA) is consulting on the European Commission’s proposal for a Clinical Trials Regulation. The Government is committed to ensuring that the European Union (EU) regulatory framework for clinical trials does not create unnecessary burdens on researchers and makes the EU [...]

The Red Tape Challenge today launched the Healthy Living and Social Care theme. The theme will be open for five weeks alongside a Department for Business, Innovation and Skills ‘Focus on Enforcement’ review of care homes, which is part of the government’s commitment to regulate all businesses more efficiently. You can visit the theme landing [...]

Communities Minister Don Foster today launched a new independent group of building industry experts, tasked with simplifying the mass of rules imposed on developers and housebuilders, to make them easier to understand and follow. As part of the Government’s Red Tape Challenge Ministers have made clear they want to do everything possible to remove unnecessary [...]

The European Commission has launched a consultation process to identify the top ten EU legislative acts considered most burdensome by micro-companies and SMEs. It will run until 21 December 2012. Once complete, the Commission has undertaken to analyse the results and use them to propose focused and tailor-made revisions of these legislative acts. European Commission [...]

The Government has published the results from the Challenger Businesses Red Tape Challenge (formerly called Disruptive Business Models). Over 600 comments were received through the Red Tape Challenge website and the social networking site Linked In, and the business community has been instrumental in defining the final package of proposals. Overall, this Red Tape Challenge [...]

Vince Cable announces measures to give firms more flexibility and confidence in managing their workforce and to reduce employment law red tape. Today’s package comes in response to calls from business to simplify and speed up the process of ending the employment relationship when it breaks down, for the benefit of both employers and employees. [...]

NEW PROPOSALS TO BOOST SMALL BUSINESSES THAT SUPPORT HOME BUYERS AND SELLERS Businesses hosting private property sales advertisements, without getting involved in the sales process, will no longer be subject to various regulations aimed at estate agents, Consumer Affairs Minister, Jo Swinson announced today. Following on from the Red Tape Challenge, the Government’s response to [...]

Response from the Community Share Unit to BWB’s ‘Ten Reforms to Grow the Social Investment Market’ The Community Share Unit have written a response to BWBs paper detailing the ten reforms they want to see in order to help the social investment market grow. The ful response can be downloaded as a pdf file by [...]