• Business, commerce and other interests have channels to express their concern about regulatory
matters.
The management processes by which this is undertaken may vary. As a beginning, it is important to
allocate ministerial responsibility in each department for scrutinising the quality of regulatory proposals.
Each department can then nominate membership of an interdepartmental committee or panel, which
provides an overall review of the implications for SMEs of regulations. Such a
panel can press departments
to justify or abandon regulations that are likely to cause problems and can act as a broker to resolve
differences between departments. In addition, it can establish criteria for encouraging deregulation where
desirable and possible.
In some countries this committee procedure is reinforced by the establishment of an independent de-
regulation authority or better regulation unit and/or the setting up of an independent task force or impact
assessment unit to continuously review and report on key areas of regulatory impact.
EFFECTIVE POLICIES FOR SMALL BUSINESS - © OECD 2004
3. Policy
Management
38
In the UK, the Better Regulation Task Force was set up as an independent advisory body in 1997. Members are
recruited from a variety of backgrounds: large and small businesses, business associations, consumer groups, unions, the
voluntary sector, and those who enforce regulations and ideally have experience of regulatory issues.
The Task Force is independent but works with a team in the British Cabinet Office known as the Regulatory Impact Unit.
The terms of reference are: ‘to advise the government on action which improves the effectiveness and credibility of government
regulation by ensuring that it is necessary, fair and affordable and simple to understand and administer taking particular
account of the needs of small businesses and ordinary people’. Specific issues are studied by sub-groups of the Task Force.
Key guidelines for better regulation include:
• Leave businesses free to decide how best to achieve their objectives wherever possible;
• Eliminate and simplify regulations where this helps business growth;
• Have fewer and simpler regulations;
• Emphasise facilitation and compliance rather than control and punishment;
• Ensure that the framework does not hinder competition.
The key tasks of task forces and committees frequently include:
• Clarifying
underlying problems;
• Clarifying which departments or ministries have an interest in the matter;
• Determining whether an issue can be resolved without regulation;
• Exploring how regulation can solve a problem – is it realistic?;
• Examining the compliance costs/cost effectiveness of different solutions;
• Estimating likely impacts on business and particularly SMEs;
• Reviewing management and enforcement issues of various regulatory options;
• Assessing how the regulations fit in/comply with any international obligations.
An outline of a regulatory impact assessment procedure may be found in Annex 9.10.
Rather
than legislation, voluntary schemes or codes of practice may be introduced. Voluntary schemes
will work where public and private interests coincide and there are mutual incentives for change. An
example would be the setting of industry standards for electrical goods to which suppliers must conform.
Codes of conduct set out circumstances under which a regulatory authority may take action. Codes are
easier to change and modernise than legislation itself. They may govern processes of self-regulation and
may operate by the establishment of an external supervisory body. Legislation may ensure that rules made
by voluntary bodies can be legally enforced.
Two key issues should be kept in mind:
• Firstly, policymakers must seek to ensure that the benefits of moving into the formal sector are clearly
identified and promoted. Examples of this include legislation regarding
the security and transfer of
land and property and measures to improve access to affordable business financing;
• Secondly, the government should build upon ways in which the informal sector seeks to regulate
itself. This involves understanding the ‘unwritten rules’ of the sector. The micro savings and lending
sector, for example, can be strengthened by building incrementally on existing conventions,
solving
shortcomings of the existing credit systems in a way that is acceptable to debtors, creditors and the
local community alike.
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