Partner Article

Making sense of Regulations in the North East

Strategy consultancy Wood Holmes Group, hosted one of a series of workshops this month for an independent review led by Sarah Anderson CBE and supported by the Better Regulation Executive (BRE).

Representatives from eight businesses, ranging from the financial sector to food and drink manufacturing, gathered at Wood Holmes Group’s Newcastle office to voice their opinions on the administrative burden of regulatory compliance.

Overly complex regulations can impose excessive costs and be hard for organisations to understand and apply. According to BERR, every year almost half of businesses seek external advice about how to follow regulations. To identify ways of making improvements, Sarah has been commissioned by the government to lead this review and these workshops form an integral part in the information gathering process and in identifying suggestions for future regulatory reform.

The Review team has been travelling the country consulting with small & medium sized enterprises (SMEs), collecting their views on the matter and suggestions for how they can be supported better in complying with regulations. The results will be fed directly to Sarah who will make recommendations to the Government in her report in autumn 2008.

The Better Regulations Executive is part of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) purpose is to challenge new legislation and to simplify, improve and even scrap existing regulation. www.betterregulation.gov.uk

Wood Holmes Group is an innovative strategy consultancy helping clients make sense of complex problems in their organisations.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .