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Business Secretary sets out new stronger duty for regulators to ensure they better prioritise helping businesses go for growth
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New public dashboard will allow businesses to review how regulators are performing and give direct feedback to government, holding regulators to account
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Independent reviews to scrutinise key regulators and recommend improvements
A major shake-up of accountability and transparency for UK regulators will be set out tomorrow (Tuesday 21 October) to support businesses and remove obstacles to economic growth.
A key part of this will be a stronger growth duty, cementing growth as a guiding principle for regulators, encouraging proportionate, business friendly regulation. Tomorrow (TUES) the Government will set out how these changes will ensure investment and innovation can thrive without compromising essential protections at the Regional Investment Summit in Birmingham.
A new dashboard which will allow the public to scrutinise regulator’s performance will also be announced.
The new Gov.uk site will be updated every quarter to empower firms, improve scrutiny, and create more responsive enforcement of regulation. It will collate performance data across key regulators in one place, as well as enabling direct feedback on regulator performance and service delivery.
Business & Trade Secretary Peter Kyle said
“We will use every lever we have to grow the UK economy to boost business, create jobs, put money back in people’s pockets and pay for good public services.
“By stripping back unnecessary rules and pointless paperwork we will free business to grow while ensuring vital protections are enforced. Creating a stronger growth a duty for regulators is a key part of this while greater transparency will ensure that they can be held to account.
“Getting the balance of regulation right is key to achieving economic growth. This will help to back the UK’s businesses, creating jobs and growing the economy as part of our Plan for Change.”
Government has been working with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to put the competition watchdog on a more pro-growth footing, setting out a strategic steer on how the government expects the CMA to support and contribute to growth. Government has heard how changes such as this and their new “4Ps” approach are helping to increase business confidence to invest in the UK.
The reforms announced tomorrow (Tuesday 21 October) will help ensure that all key regulators have more clarity from government about how to align with its overriding mission to deliver economic growth, and stronger accountability to the government and the public.
In the coming weeks, the Business Secretary / Ministers will also meet with watchdog bosses, including the likes of Ofcom, Ofgem and the CMA, as part of a Regulator Council to develop a shared understanding of how regulators can support growth.
This week, the Treasury and Department for Business and Trade will be outlining further measures as part of its Regulatory Action Plan to reduce business burdens.
