‘Red Tape Challenge’ likely to be Waste of Time

Dated: 7 April 2011

Today’s Government announcement of a yet another move to gather de-regulatory suggestions from the public was met with skepticism by the IoD.  The latest ‘Red Tape Challenge’ follows hot on the heels of the Government’s ‘Your Freedom’ website for citizen-led de-regulatory suggestions and the last government’s ‘Better Regulation Portal’.  Neither predecessor of this ‘Red Tape Challenge’ made any difference to businesses on the ground.  The IoD are concerned that this two-year initiative could waste vital time that would be better used tackling known regulations now.

Despite these concerns, today the IoD has submitted 266 detailed regulatory case studies to the Government.  These proposals were shared with the previous Government, but resulted in no changes to the key areas.

IoD Head of Regulatory Affairs, Alexander Ehmann, said:

“The IoD is concerned that the ‘Red Tape Challenge’ will have as little impact as previous government efforts.  The truth is that the Government know where the regulatory ‘bodies are buried’.  It’s not a case of asking businesses for suggestions again and again, it about getting on with the tough decisions that de-regulation requires.”

ENDS

Contact Points

Edwin Morgan
Media Relations Manager
Institute of Directors, 116 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5ED
Tel: +44 (0)20 7451 3392
Mob: +44 (0)7814 386 243
Email: edwin.morgan@iod.com
Website: www.iod.com/policy

Notes to editors

  • The IoD (Institute of Directors) was founded in 1903 and obtained a Royal Charter in 1906. The IoD is a non-party political organisation with upwards of 45,000 members in the United Kingdom and overseas. Membership includes directors from right across the business spectrum – from media to manufacturing, e-business to the public and voluntary sectors. Members include CEOs of large corporations as well as entrepreneurial directors of start-up companies.
  • The IoD offers a wide range of business services which include business centre facilities (including ten UK regional centres [three in London, Reading, Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester, Nottingham, Edinburgh and Belfast] and one each in Paris and Brussels), conferences, networking events, virtual offices and hotdesking, issues-led guides and literature, as well as free access to business information and advisory services and a comprehensive Information Centre. The IoD places great emphasis on director development and has established a certified qualification for directors – Chartered Director – as well as running specific board-level and director-level training and individual career mentoring programmes.
  • In addition, the IoD provides an effective voice to represent the interests of its members to government and key opinion-formers at the highest levels. These include ministers, constituency MPs, Select Committee members and senior civil servants. IoD policies and views are actively promoted to the national, regional and trade media.
  • For further information, visit our website: www.iod.com
  • You can also keep up to date with the latest views from the IoD on twitter.com/The_IoD and at blogs.iod.com