Lamb challenges government to "get own house in order" on red tape

12.00.00am GMT Tue 24th May 2005

Norman Lamb, Lib Dem Shadow Trade & Industry Secretary, is challenging Gordon Brown and Alan Johnson to get their own house in order on red tape.

Gordon Brown is today reported to be calling on business to come up with a list of redundant regulations which can be binned. He also condemns the plethora of inspections by local authorities in an article in the Financial Times.

"Gordon Brown is right to challenge an overbearing inspection regime, but he says nothing about the constant flow of new regulation.

"This year's Queen's Speech contained 50 proposed Bills. We have got to tackle this obsession with regulating everything that moves. Regulation should be the last resort not the first resort."

Norman Lamb has proposed a 3 point plan to reduce the flow of new regulation:

• Each new regulation affecting business should contain a sunset clause - so the measure expires after a fixed period and can only be continued once its impact has been assessed and there has been a vote in Parliament

• Every proposed business regulation should be subject to an independent assessment of its impact on business - currently the department introducing the measure does its own self-serving assessment)

• The UK must use its Presidency of the EU to force through a similar approach to EU law-making

"It is a bit rich for the Chancellor to challenge business over red tape when there's such a mismatch between the government's own rhetoric and its abject failure to reduce the burden of regulation."