Alan Johnson, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, is calling on businesses to help cut red tape and work with the DTI in developing simplification proposals.
The Government’s draft simplification plan covers all areas of DTI policy. It includes sweeping changes to make company law more flexible and easier to understand, transforming the way key agencies such as Companies House and the Patent Office operate through deregulation, and simpler electronic filing, registration and search systems.
It also features work to cut the burden of company reporting requirements by replacing the Operating and Financial Review with a simpler Business Review in line with the minimum requirements of the EU Accounts Modernisation Directive.
The draft plan, published on the DTI website (www.dti.gov.uk), also includes plans to ensure that future changes to employment law are packaged so that business knows exactly what initiatives are coming and when.
The Business Link website (www.businesslink.gov.uk) will also be enhanced to help businesses, particularly small firms, to better understand regulation.
Says Alan Johnson: “The DTI will be a leader on the Government’s better regulation programme. The draft simplification plan shows how we will deliver over £1 billion regulatory savings to businesses by 2010, with more to come as we develop our ambitious forward programme. This will be a rolling plan, updated and published regularly.
“We are working closely with business in developing the DTI simplification plan and need their help to make it even stronger. We want businesses to talk to us about the changes they want to see.”
You can have your say at www.dti.gov.uk/simplify