Business goes online to cut red tape

6 Jul 2010 01:29 PM

Leading UK companies have taken part in a podcast to promote the benefits of a national red tape cutting scheme that is shaving millions of pounds from operating costs.

Supermarket giant Asda; leading distributor to specialist trades, BSS Group; high street betting chain, Ladbroke's; and the motorway services provider, Moto, all support the Primary Authority scheme.

Administered by the technical experts on better local regulation, LBRO, primary authority partnerships are legal agreements between businesses and local authorities.

Primary Authority greatly simplifies the complexity of dealing with regulations such as trading standards or health and safety for businesses operating in two or more council areas.

By providing a single point of contact, the Primary Authority ensures consistency in the way these regulations are enforced, and consistency of advice, and saves business the time and costs of duplicated effort involved with complying. Otherwise, businesses can be prosecuted, even if they follow official advice, if local inspectors disagree about how to interpret regulations.

LBRO Chairman Clive Grace said: "Primary Authority is a win-win scheme which we are encouraging business and local authorities to adopt. It is part of a new risk-based approach to regulation that helps smooth the way for business but, vitally, also helps local authorities to target scarce resources more efficiently, and so provide better protection for consumers.

"There can be no better advocates for Primary Authority than the people who are involved with it day by day. We are grateful to all those who spared their time for the podcast - they wouldn't have done so if they did not genuinely believe other businesses would also benefit from engaging with the scheme."

Primary Authority is growing nationally: there are now 291 primary authority partnerships involving 88 businesses, including many well known retailers such as B&Q, Argos and Selfridges, and covers over 21,000 premises. Ministers have asked the Better Regulation Executive to work with LBRO to prepare options for extending the Primary Authority scheme.

A local authority version of the podcast has also been produced. To see the business and local authority versions go to http://lbro.org.uk/pa-videos.html