Gov't promises to cut pub red tape burden

The Government has promised to cut the regulatory burden for pubs.

The message came from enterprise minister Mark Prisk in a meeting with BII chief Neil Robertson.

Last November a report from regulation watchdog the Better Regulation Executive said pubs face a "particularly high regulatory burden", flagging up issues such as the minimum wage, PAYE, food safety and logging underage sales refusals.

At the time, the coalition Government said it agreed with the findings of the report. Robertson told the Morning Advertiser this week that the Government had since changed its stance and now planned to implement the report."

However, Robertson added: "I haven't seen the implementation plan so will have to watch carefully. But the messages are the right ones."

National Insurance​

The BII boss said he stressed the need to cut the burden of complying with national insurance (NI) rules during his meeting with Prisk, because BII members found this to be a particular concern.

Robertson said licensees have complained about difficulties in keeping track of their NI contributions and getting a slow response to questions.

"The message we've had back from members is they are not so concerned about licensing, but more about health and safety and national insurance.

"We've gone as far as we can go with health and safety. We are now pressing on national insurance. The perception of it is there's a real barrier to taking on staff," said Robertson.

He described his meeting as "positive", saying the minister was "very warm to what we were saying".

Also at the meeting was JD Wetherspoon legal director Su Cacioppo, who raised concerns over regulations relating to maternity leave and tribunals.

Reaction: Department for Business, Innovation & Skills​

We have made clear that we must cut the red tape that is preventing growth and that there needs to be a culture shift in Whitehall so that regulation is seen as an absolute last resort.

We've set up a Cabinet committee that has the power to veto regulations if they place too much of a burden on businesses and established a 'one in, one out' rule. We've also committed to working much harder in Europe to reduce the flow of regulations that come from Brussels.

We are also looking at introducing clauses into new regulations so that they are reviewed after a set period of time to make sure they are still needed.