Better regulation that doesn't get in the way of business

Do you understand the safety laws that apply to your business? Do you feel your business has to spend too much time and money paying attention to the regulations? Are the authorities doing enough to enforce the regulations that keep traders, their staff and their customers safe? Are they helping you do the right things?

North Norfolk businesses are being asked what they think of the environmental health, licensing, trading standards and fire safety rules - and the teams of officers that enforce them - in a survey aimed at cutting the burden of red tape.

The 2005 Hampton Review for the Treasury showed that small and medium-sized businesses (like most companies in North Norfolk) suffer disproportionately from the impact regulation has on their time, because they have fewer staff to devote to it. Regulation is important in making sure businesses know, and live up to, their duties to keep their staff and customers safe. But more can be done to ensure regulation helps businesses succeed and grow, rather than hindering them.

Last year, the Government set up the Local Better Regulation Office (LBRO), to help regulatory authorities focus their inspection and enforcement efforts on areas that most deserve it, and that are priorities to the Government and national regulators.

The LBRO also aims to bring consistency to regulation activities across the country, so businesses that operate across council boundaries are not faced with very different practices in different places, and some businesses do not face more of a burden than others in their industry.

North Norfolk District Council has joined forces with the North Norfolk Business Forum and Norfolk's trading standards and fire safety authorities to send out a questionnaire to all businesses in the District, asking them what they think of the current regime of inspections, advice and enforcement over things like food and health and safety, pollution control, waste management, licensing, consumer complaints and accidents. The survey also asks how this work could be done better.

As well as helping to improve advice and services to businesses in North Norfolk, in ways that businesses themselves want, the survey results are likely to be used by the Norfolk Better Regulation Partnership in following the LBRO's agenda.

The survey will be sent to 3500 businesses in North Norfolk towards the end of March. Questionnaires should be returned, by FREEPOST, by 30 April.

Nick Baker, Strategic Director for Environmental Services at North Norfolk District Council, said: "We hope that improvements to local regulation will be welcomed by the business community in North Norfolk. It is essential that we help local businesses thrive and better regulation has a major part to play in this, if we work with businesses, not against them, and make sure they are treated fairly."

For information about this research, call Paul Clarke at NNDC on 01263 516208, email paul.clarke@north-norfolk.gov.uk or Nick Baker 01263 516221, email nick.baker@north-norfolk.gov.uk

To find out more about the national Better Regulation agenda, visit:

• The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform: www.berr.gov.uk/bre/
• Local Better Regulation Office: www.lbro.org

ENDS