Environmental ‘Red Tape’ Challenge

Posted on: September 8, 2011

From the 1st – 21st September 2011 the Red Tape Challenge (RTC) will be focusing on the 287 environmental regulations that apply to businesses, covering issues such as waste, emissions and wildlife protection.
The RTC asks whether existing regulations are providing the environmental protection that is intended and should therefore be retained, or if they are unnecessarily burdensome or redundant and should be scrapped.
People are also being asked for suggestions on how regulations could be simplified to make them easier to follow and more effective, or if an environmental aim could be better achieved through an alternative non-regulatory way.
The Government suggests that by simplifying regulations and removing burdens will also benefit the economy by saving businesses millions in unnecessary costs
Environment Minister Jim Paice said: “This is not about reducing our standards. Regulation has an important role to play in protecting the environment and our natural resources, but some of the rules we ask businesses to follow are either too complicated, ineffective or just obsolete. The Red Tape Challenge is a chance to tell us how we can protect the environment in a more effective and simpler way that puts fewer burdens on businesses.”
Business Minister Mark Prisk said: “Firms are best placed to understand the effect these regulations can have on the day to day running of a business and I hope they can give us an honest and frank appraisal of where improvements can be made, without compromising the protection that the regulations were designed to provide.
“The Red Tape Challenge has already been used to highlight a number of ways in which compliance problems are getting in the way of businesses, and we want to hear the different views on which environmental regulations can be simplified, improved or scrapped.”
Defra is already making progress in simplifying and reducing the number of our regulations, but there is scope for more through the Red Tape Challenge.