‘One-in, one-out’ rule aims to slash red tape
Author: Dominic Browne, The MJ |
Communities secretary Eric Pickles this week vowed to axe two government regulations for every one his department introduces ? and has called on the rest of Whitehall to do the same.
The commitment goes beyond the long-standing aim of the coalition, contained within its ‘Programme for government’, to cut red tape by introducing a ‘one-in, one-out’ rule, ‘whereby no new regulation is brought in without other regulations being cut by a greater amount’.
Mr Pickles told The MJ: ‘As a government, we need to go further in slashing red tape. For every regulation my department creates, it will axe two. I think it’s a practice we should look at adopting across Whitehall.’
In a move likely to be welcomed by the Conservatives’ grass roots, the former Tory chairman aimed a combative sideswipe at the European Union ? and what he described as previous governments’ practice of ‘piggy-backing their pet projects under the guise of an EU Directive’.
Ministers at Mr Pickles’ DCLG recently revealed they scrapped 11 regulations for every one they introduced during most of 2011.
Local government minister Bob Neill told parliament that between 1 June 2011 and 31 January 2012 his department introduced only one regulation ‘on a 1-in 11-out basis’. Mr Neill told the Commons the DCLG introduced 34 new statutory instruments, also known as secondary legislation, over the second half of 2011.
‘Of these?11 were deregulatory or otherwise beneficial to business; one was regulatory (implementing an EU directive), the remainder had no quantifiable impact on the private and voluntary sectors,’ the minister added.