The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has today (16 May), called on UK businesses and the public to submit ideas on how to develop ‘Smarter Guidance’ to make environmental regulations ‘more straightforward’.

According to Environment Secretary Owen Paterson, businesses could save more than £1 billion over 10 years if environmental guidance were ‘easier to find and follow’.

Speaking today, Paterson said: “This is not about reducing the quality of environmental regulations. The same protection levels will stay. We want to make it easier for businesses to find and follow the law with a single version of straightforward guidance for each topic. Right now businesses are wading through too much complex information. We should also be smart about the information we ask from businesses and how we collect it.

“Taking up too much of businesses’ time can be an unseen barrier to growth. With clearer, simpler guidance we can save a great deal of time and money for businesses to put to better use. As we implement these reforms we will be asking you to tell us how we can make it easier for businesses to do their part in improving the environment.”

The ‘Smarter Guidance’ review forms part of government’s Red Tape Challenge and aims to produce ‘more user-friendly guidance to ensure the requirements of these regulations can be met easily’.

Streamlined guidance could save £10 billion

According to Defra, successful streamlining of the guidance can reduce the time spent by businesses on sifting through regulations by 80 per cent and save the UK economy more than £1billion over the next 10 years.

Defra is now calling on stakeholders and members of the public to submit view on how guidance could be improved for the following areas:

1. Wildlife protection
2. Waste management and control
3. Wildlife management and control
4. Land management
5. Marine management
6. Freshwater management
7. Horticultural plant health
8. Plant varieties and seeds
9. Bee health
10. Environmental permits
11. Access and landscape
12. General environmental rules (controlling local air emissions; noise and other nuisance issues; effluent; run-off; storing oil and managing chemicals.)
13. Sustainability and energy efficiency
14. Flood management and coastal change
15. Emergencies, pollution incidents and environmental hazards
16. Enforcement and sanctions
17. Water management
18. Chemicals and biotechnology
19. Development (includes Environmental Impact Assessments, contaminated land and land use planning)
20. Energy, carbon and other greenhouse gases

Environment, Energy and Water Chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, Allen Creedy said: “Small businesses want to play their part in the move to a greener economy but they are often disproportionately affected by complicated environmental regulation. That is why the Federation of Small Businesses supports Defra’s Smarter Regulation review.

“Initiatives like this can go a long way to easing the administrative cost of and the time it takes to comply with regulation. It can help to create a win-win situation ensuring small firms respect the environment while generating much needed growth for the economy. We would look forward to working with Defra on the implementation of the review.”

This initial feedback exercise will be open until 5 July 2013.

Defra has said once all initial feedback has been received and considered, it will review each topic and publish plans for reforming them on a rolling basis until spring 2014. These will also be open for comment.

Read more about Defra’s ‘Smarter Guidance’.