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Government's red tape claims disputed

The government has claimed that their drive to reduce red tape in the UK is succeeding, and is saving UK businesses just under £2bn a year.

An official government report states that the simplification and abolition of 240 measures has helped to remove certain unnecessary burdens and put the government on track to meet its target of cutting needless bureaucracy 25% by 2010.

The figures have been certified by PriceWaterHouseCoopers, but the National Audit Office (NAO) and some leading businesses have disputed the claims.

The NAO have commented that figures for 2007 have to be treated with caution, due to a lack of independent valuation and the Institute of Directors (IoD) has said that its members are actually experiencing a rising burden of red tape.

An IoD survey found that over 50% of those questioned thought that red tape had become more demanding over the last year, compared to just 3% who believed that it had eased.

“Business just doesn’t see the improvement, we’ve heard all the talk but the government is yet to walk the walk,” said the IoD’s head of parliamentary affairs, Alexander Ehmann.

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