My Lords, I warmly welcome the Bill, and believe that it has the potential to create an even more favourable climate within which businesses can become established and grow. First, let me be clear about my own interests: not only am I in involved in small businesses, but I also declare an interest as the independent chair of the Better Regulation Executive. In the interests of transparency, let me state that the BRE has played a significant role in the formation of Part 2, Clauses 13 to 15, of the Bill. The Better Regulation Delivery Office, with which I also work closely, has been involved in Part 3.
This country has a long tradition of being an epicentre of business, but this Bill will ensure that there is an even more favourable climate in Britain for business to thrive. I hope that this Bill will help to position the UK as the lead country in Europe in which to do business, and build on progress to date. The Enterprise Bill will go further in helping to change the culture, in which small businesses will be able to start, uninhibited by mountains of red tape, and be given the help, support and encouragement that they need at every stage of their development to be able to grow, create employment and generate wealth.
The aim of Part 2, as the Minister said, is to extend the scope of the business impact target to include the regulatory activity of statutory regulators and to report publicly on the actions that they are taking in the fulfilment of their duties under the Regulators’ Code and the growth duty, and contribute towards the £10 billion target over the life of the Parliament. The result of the regulatory provisions will be to make regulators more transparent and accountable when performing their regulatory functions and, in particular, how they affect the activities of businesses. The transparency and accountability afforded by these provisions will ensure visibility of the impact of regulators’ activities on businesses, which will give further confidence to businesses that regulators are actively considering such impacts when making decisions.
The noble Lord, Lord Mendelsohn, has referred to the data published on regulatory savings during the previous Parliament. The RPC has been responsible for publishing those data, as he said, but he questioned their accuracy. The RPC is an independent body—I need to stress that—which jealously guards its independence. However, I have always had a concern that hard data alone are not a great indicator of success. The indicator of crucial importance is the attitude of business and business perceptions, and the most recent business perceptions survey shows that there has been a 10-point fall within the last five years in the number of businesses thinking that regulation is a barrier to progress. That for me is a much more important indicator than the hard data. However, the overall number of businesses that still consider regulation to be a problem means that the figure is still too high—so we still have more to do. I hope that we continue to drive this down further if we are to succeed in driving the change in culture that I mentioned
earlier. That is why this Bill is important. Regulators need to appreciate the impacts of their actions on the bodies that they regulate. That is part of good policy-making, so I welcome its wider application to regulators now.
A key concern that has been expressed to me about these measures is the effect that they might have on the independence of regulators. I want to make it clear that this Bill does not constrain their independence and does not prevent them taking action in fulfilling their statutory duties. Regulators will be able to contribute to the Government’s overall business impact target, but they will not be required to meet any individual deregulation targets themselves. The responsibility for meeting the business impact target lies with the Government and government departments, not with specific regulators. Instead, it is all about transparency. The proposal will require regulators to report on any additional cost burdens or savings that their actions might impose on business, which they should be aware of in many cases.
I take this opportunity to welcome the regulators’ reporting requirements set out in Clauses 14 and 15. The Regulators’ Code and the growth duty are both positive measures designed to ensure that regulators consider the needs of business when exercising their functions. It is important that government and business are able effectively to appraise these important measures so that the impact they are having and the benefit they bring to business can be properly measured. To enable this to happen, regulators must be transparent about the action they have taken in respect of both measures.
I support Part 3 on the extension of the primary authority scheme. I hope this will not be a contentious part of the Bill. The primary authority scheme has been a huge success. It is highly valued by the business community. It has reduced bureaucracy and significant costs and improved efficiency, so this extension to the scheme is an important step forward in its evolution.
I shall now change course and comment on another key element of the Bill. A number of comments have already been made about the apprenticeship proposals in the Bill. I endorse the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Stoneham, on the disappointing figure for uptake in the north-east of England. The enrolment of apprentices is crucial to the establishment of a skilled workforce and the improvement of our productivity. I and others have a keen interest in the economy of the north-east of England. We need to focus on making sure that uptake increases and that we achieve the current targets within the scheme.
The Minister is aware that I have a serious interest in the agriculture, food and rural sectors. Apprenticeship figures in those sectors are also disappointing. They are crucial to improving our productivity within the agri-food industry. We need a concentrated effort to improve performance and uptake. I work very closely with the land-based colleges and their sector body, Landex. They are concerned about this and are keen to play a key role. I would be interested in briefing the Minister on this issue, if she would find that helpful.
I thank noble Lords for listening. I shall return to the subject of regulation and hope that noble Lords agree that these measures will be better for business
and for Britain if we are able to introduce the more transparent, accountable and effective regulatory system which is proposed in the Bill.
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