|
Click on the cover to read the latest issue of PSB
Affiliate Links
|
Red Tape Challenge: manufacturers it’s your turn to have your say21 July 2011 Back in April, members of the public, businesses and community organisations were invited to give a boost to growth and personal freedoms by ripping up some of the 21,000 rules that they believe are getting in their way.
The Red Tape challenge website, launched by prime minister David Cameron and business secretary Vince Cable, gives the public a chance to have their say on regulations that affect their everyday lives. The first area of national life to go under the microscope was the retail sector; now (between July 21 and August 11, to be precise) the manufacturing sector has a chance to voice its opinions.
The Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) is now urging manufacturers to seize this unique opportunity to tell the government what they really think about the rules and regulations that affect them. In particular, small and medium sized businesses will be able to share their opinions as to which regulations must stay, which should be simplified and which should be removed. The government promises that burdensome regulations will go, and if ministers disagree, then they will have to make a very good case for them to stay.
MAS frequently works with small and medium sized businesses to help them meet regulatory and industry standards and sees the pressures that they are under first hand. Averaging around 400 enquiries a week since it set up shop in 2002, the organisation is only too aware of the trials and tribulations that SMEs bear in the face of burdensome regulation. Companies like tier one automotive supplier, Gestamp, which MAS advised during a recent ISO 14001 accreditation process, supports the aims of the Red Tape Challenge.
Gestamp’s business development and commercial manager, Mark Potts concedes that some regulations and standards obviously must be maintained in order to promote best practice within industry. But there are regulations that increase the burden on manufacturers without delivering any obvious benefits. He, for one, would like to see a reversal of the lowering of both the Climate Change Levy threshold, which will penalise smaller energy intensive companies such as Gestamp, and Feed in Tariffs, which will affect the commercial viability of installing green technologies, such as solar panels.
Lighting control systems specialist, Zodion is another company with whom MAS worked on a similar project. On the subject of the Red Tape Challenge, managing director, John Fox would like to see a reduction in the amount of bureaucracy surrounding ‘The CRC Energy Efficiency Order 2010’. “For a medium sized company such as ourselves the inconsistency of its application on our customers can present a heavy burden,” he says.
The Engineering Employers’ Federation (EEF) is helping to spearhead the two week campaign through its chief executive, Terry Scuoler, who will act as sector champion. He says the growth in regulation has plagued business for a long time. But by getting involved in the Red Tape Challenge, companies now have a real opportunity to help turn the tide. "By telling government how regulations are affecting them, how they could be improved and where they should be scrapped, they can help to start dismantling a key barrier to growing their businesses and our economy,” he says.
EEF is also lobbying for reduced, simplified and more effective regulation in a number of areas covered by the Red Tape Challenge - particularly Environmental policy, where there is considerable scope for consolidation in waste and packaging regulation.
Similarly, the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive has been implemented in the UK through a succession of regulations amending and adding to the provisions of the original European legislation. Consolidating them into a single piece of regulation would make the requirements easier and less time consuming to understand.
Other areas that should be simplified include health & safety, employment law and company law. Manufacturers feeling the burden of regulation are encouraged to participate.
So, if you are a manufacturer and want to have your say, the Red Tape Challenge website awaits your comments. The input will be reviewed by ministers who have just three months to decide which regulations they will scrap - with the presumption that all burdensome regulations that cannot be justified will go.
Les Hunt
Editor
Contact Details and Archive...Related Articles...Most Viewed Articles... |
|