LOCAL BETTER
REGULATION OFFICE News Release (LBRO/13/2008) issued by COI News
Distribution Service. 10 September 2008
Some of
Britain's biggest businesses and most innovative councils are
to pioneer a new type of regulatory partnership designed to ensure
that key trading laws are applied consistently across the UK.
Retail giants B&Q, Boots, John Lewis, Tesco, Sainsburys and
Waitrose are gearing up to test the new Primary Authority
partnerships with council regulators in Bracknell Forest, City of
London, Dundee, Eastleigh, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Highland,
Nottinghamshire, Wakefield, West Yorkshire and Westminster.
The statutory Primary Authority scheme run by the Local Better
Regulation Office (LBRO) will be available to all businesses that
operate across many local authorities from April 2009, with the
test phase running from October 2008 to March 2009.
Government estimates suggest the scheme could eventually save
business up to £48 million a year.
Shriti Vadera, Minister for Business, said:
"The Primary Authority scheme is a big step forward that
will save time and money for businesses and local authorities
across the country.
"It will provide clear and consistent support for
businesses, better protection for consumers, and a strong
framework for local authorities to improve inspection and enforcement."
Graham Wynn, Assistant Director for Consumer Affairs at the
British Retail Consortium, said:
"The BRC has strongly supported the development of an
effective system of Primary Authorities. This will require a
practical and flexible approach. The test phase should help to
ensure that the system can be fine tuned and be ready to be rolled
out nationwide next April. It is essential LBRO scores an early
win on getting the right structure in place."
Clive Grace, the LBRO Chair, said:
"The local regulation of business is critical to
Britain's prosperity and to the protection of consumers,
workers, and the environment. The Primary Authority scheme will be
a major improvement in the local regulation of business. It puts
current voluntary arrangements, which businesses find useful but
too limited, onto a statutory footing.
"Inconsistent advice from different councils can damage
prosperity, cause frustration and add to business costs. The new
scheme will help ensure consistency, and improve companies'
confidence about getting robust and reliable advice from council
regulators. Their new partnerships with councils are a key part of
Better Local Regulation, improving compliance and reducing red tape.
"The Primary Authority scheme will benefit not only the
giant retailers but any business trading across council boundaries
or on the web. It will also stimulate changes in culture and
approach among council regulators, as they become more attuned to
the impact of their work on the way their local businesses and
economies operate, and the kind of help business needs to be able
to get on with the job of creating prosperity."
Currently businesses can run the risk of prosecution even if they
follow official advice if local inspectors disagree about how to
interpret regulations. A lack of consistency in local regulation
can also result in discrepancies in protection for consumers,
workers and the environment.
Under the Primary Authority scheme any business that trades
across council boundaries can ask to register one local authority
as its source of specialist advice about compliance with trading
standards and environmental health regulations.
The partnerships will mean better co-ordination of local
inspection and enforcement activity. Before local regulators start
proceedings against a participating company, they will need to
agree with its Primary Authority a course of enforcement action
that is consistent with previously given advice. LBRO will help
resolve any differences of opinion.
In the run up to April 2009, LBRO will be working with key
businesses and councils to develop the draft agreements and
inspection plans, and test the referral of enforcement queries.
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. The Primary Authority scheme was designed by the Better
Regulation Executive in the Department for Business, Enterprise
& Regulatory Reform, and approved by Parliament as part of the
Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008. BERR will publish
consultation on the secondary legislation that will spell out the
detailed legal framework for the scheme.
2. Primary Authority partnerships will be available to any
business that trades across council boundaries, regardless of
size. Small businesses that sell from websites, for example, will
have the same access to consistent advice about trading standards
and health and safety rules as big manufacturing or construction
companies. The scheme will improve compliance to the benefit of
business, consumers and communities.
3. The original concept of a Primary Authority type scheme
emerged out of the Hampton report in 2005. The report acknowledged
that two existing voluntary schemes Lead Authority (set up by HSE
to cover health and safety advice to business) and Home Authority
(similar but covers food and trading standards advice, and run by
LACORS) had the potential to offer significant benefits to
business, but were undermined by some fundamental weaknesses:
* not all eligible businesses could find a local authority partner
* enforcing authorities were not compelled to consult the leading
authority and some failed to do so
* there was no comprehensive mechanism to resolve disputes
* insufficient resources for the local authority performing the
leading role inhibited the service they could provide
4. The next six months leading up to the introduction of Primary
Authority involve several opportunities for businesses and
regulators to shape the final form of the scheme. The Better
Regulation Executive is running a consultation on the secondary
legislation that will provide the detailed legal framework for the
scheme from October to December 2008. In parallel, LBRO will be
consulting widely on its guidance, including:
* working with those businesses and companies that have agreed to
take part in the test in October and November 2008, helping them
set up the outline agreements and form inspection plans as well as
testing out the draft operational guidance
* running an 'as live' test of the scheme from January
to March 2009 to test how the operational guidance for regulators
works in practice.
5. Director of Performance and Delivery Sarah Smith and Board
member David Thurston have led the development of the Primary
Authority scheme for LBRO, heading a team of experts working with
key national businesses and local authorities, and their
representative bodies.
6. The Local Better Regulation Office (LBRO) works with council
environmental health, trading standards, licensing and fire safety
departments to reduce burdens on law-abiding businesses and ensure
that consumers, workers and the environment consistently benefit
from the protections laid down in law. Under the Regulatory
Enforcement and Sanctions Act, it will become a non-departmental
public body with statutory powers in October 2008. Please visit http://www.lbro.org.uk for more information.
Ends