Minister of State for Energy, Charles Hendry, said:
“Energy is vital to the economy and essential to driving growth. It is also the biggest infrastructure sector in the UK. Our reforms aim to stimulate over £100bn of new investment in the electricity sector and could support around 250,000 total jobs in electricity to 2030.
“It is therefore vital that we have a regulatory regime which promotes fairness and consumer and environmental protection, but does not impose unnecessary costs or barriers to generating the necessary investment, innovation and skills we need to build the low carbon economy.
“The Red Tape Challenge has provided the opportunity to ensure we continue to meet these objectives. We have listened to our stakeholders as they suggested regulations which add cost or complexity without effectively leading to protections, and I am pleased to announce that DECC will scrap or improve 134 Regulations.”
Supporting the announcement, Terry A’Hearn, Regulation Lead of the Aldersgate Group, said:
“We welcome the Government’s work in cutting back excessive and outdated regulation, whilst ensuring that protection of our environment remains as strong as ever.
“Smart regulation corrects market failures, drives innovation and provides the foundation for long-term economic growth, jobs and competitiveness and we congratulate DECC’s recognition of the importance of prioritising these long-term outcomes.”
David Porter, Chief Executive of Energy UK, said:
“We commend DECC for removing redundant legislation and for modifying a number of overly complex regulations. We are facing a huge challenge in reforming our electricity market, and this is a step in the right direction in creating a market structure that will help to deliver the jobs and investment we need, but this must be part of an ongoing process.
“We would urge DECC to continue to remove unnecessary red tape, and to continue to improve legislation, as getting future energy policy right is more critical than ever.”
Together with DECC’s simplifications to the European Emissions Trading Scheme and the Carbon Reduction Commitment regimes, this will help businesses save around £400m over 20 years. Examples of Regulations that DECC is scrapping or improving are:
- The Offshore Chemicals Regulations 2002 (amended 2011) – which establish a regime for controlling the use and discharge of chemicals from offshore installations – will have requirements streamlined to improve functionality and reduce costs for installation operators whilst maintaining all environmental protections.
- Modernisation of the Electricity (Compulsory Wayleaves) (Hearings Procedure) Rules 1967 (SI 1967/450). These rules are used to resolve disputes between licence holders and landowners for the presence of overhead electric lines on private land. They will be updated to ensure the rights and interests of both sides are appropriately balanced whilst reducing the costs and other burdens on parties.
- Improvements to the Public Gas (Transporter Pipe-line Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 1999, will scrap duplicate requirements for companies in England to seek determination from the Secretary of State as to whether a proposed pipeline would require an environmental statement.
The announcement comes as a further part of the Government’s Red Tape Challenge, which was launched in April 2011 to reduce and reform the stock of regulations on the statute book.
