Red tape slammed by Better Regulation Commission

Stop trying to regulate all the risk out of our lives is the new call from the government's red tape watchdog.

A Better Regulation Commission (BRC) report is calling for government intervention to be limited and personal responsibility encouraged instead of knee-jerk regulation. The organisation, which is an independent body that advises the government on how to reduce unnecessary regulation, says there are too many rules and regulations with many being costly to pubs such as planning rules and anti-social behaviour regulations.

Licensees have been snowed under with the streams of regulation from licensing laws to disability regulation over the last couple of years.

Rick Haythornthwaite, chairman of the BRC, argues that despite the government commitment to reduce administrative burdens on businesses things have not improved.

He said: "Despite this, there have been 33 acts of Parliament and at least 1,000 regulations introduced so far this year. Our report finds that a growing majority of people from all walks of life feel we have reached a regulatory tipping point. People are no longer convinced that having more and more rules is the best way to solve problems. Moreover, there is growing doubt that the rules we have work to best effect."

The report says the government must accept:

• risk is an essential and useful part of life
• rules and regulations are often the worst way to try to manage risk personal responsibility for managing risk needs to be encouraged
• government intervention should be actively limited to those few areas
• where it is really required.