Worlds Apart: The EU and British Regulatory Systems

This is the seventh annual report examining how the UK regulatory system works in theory and practice. It is also the fifth to review the comparable EU system. While both contribute to the network of laws with which UK businesses have to comply, we have found that the processes for creating and/or reforming the regulations are very different both from each other and also from the claims made, by both governments, for their regulatory systems. What is claimed to be open and transparent is concealed behind a blizzard of paper and confusion between unconnected committees so that both EU and UK officials and Ministers are, in practice, barely obstructed by challenge.But there is also good news. New regulation, as measured by Impact Assessments (IAs), declined in 2007/8 to 246, after topping 334 in 2005/06. For the 2007/8 new regulations, the costs, net of the benefits, estimated to accrue to business were £1.2bn for one-off costs and £573m for annual recurring costs. This decline is mainly due to the government’s drive to reducing the administrative burdens of regulation. This yielded over £1bn in the period. We are also glad to record the introduction of a standard template for IAs and a “library” to reference them.