Red Tape Challenge

Earlier this month, the Government launched its "Red Tape Challenge" website with the aim of reducing unnecessary regulation. How does it intend to do this? By inviting comments from the general public on regulations grouped under various themes.

Apparently every few weeks a new set of regulations under a particular theme will be listed on the site (the first five being retail, hospitality, road transport, fisheries and manufacturing) and the public will be invited to say why they believe certain regulations should be kept, and others consigned to the scrapheap. A bit like the X Factor, but for subordinate legislation . In addition, 6 cross-cutting themes (employment, pensions, company, equalities, health and safety and environment) will be available for comment throughout the campaign.

Once a theme has closed, all Ministers will have three months to explain why a regulation is still required, or the "presumption" is that it will be scrapped.

I hate to pour cold water on any initiative designed to simplify regulation, but ... well, it all sounds a little gimmicky. Are we seriously to believe that a wholesale review of subordinate legislation will be carried out on the basis of random e-mail postings? And have you seen the quality of comments posted to date?

I recall providing a response on behalf of my firm to the White Paper on Company Law Reform which preceded the Companies Act 2006, an exercise which took many weeks of extensive reading and redrafting. Perhaps the most sensible comment on the Red Tape website is that changes to legislation should be assessed by competent persons with up-to-date and extensive knowledge of the sector affected.