Government Takes Blame For Extra Burdens On Businesses.

3.43.16pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 16th Mar 2005

In today's budget the Chancellor admitted that the UK Government adds to EU Directives with extra regulations of their own. He announced that the Foreign Secretary will draw up guidelines for adopting EU directives in to UK law, to avoid gold-plating.

The announcement comes after a report last year revealed that it was Whitehall civil servants who were to blame for many of the problems created by extra regulations.

Liz Lynne Liberal Democrat Employment & Social Affairs Spokesperson in the European Parliament, who has campaigned for better law making in the EU, said that UK civil servants were wrapping the rules in red tape and then blaming Brussels for the size of the package.

"I welcome today's announcement by the Government that they are at last taking responsibility for the extra regulations they have burdened businesses with, rather than continuing to blame Brussels. As someone who has also been an MP I know the length of EU regulations can triple during the process of putting them on to the UK statute book, which also poses an unnecessary risk to British competitiveness.

"We now have an inter-institutional agreement in the EU, which requires Comprehensive Impact Assessments to be carried out ahead of new legislative proposals. This was something I pushed hard for, and hopefully it will help us to win the battle for sensible law-making. If the Government is interested in cutting back on red tape, it is time they took the same approach when transposing EU legislation in to UK law."

ENDS