Central red tape costs half local officer's salary
07/12/09
LOCAL regulatory services across England and Wales are spending around £6 million a year dealing with central Government requests for data - roughly half the salary of an extra environmental health or trading standards officer for every council - according to a new report.
The administrative burden placed on local authority environmental health services, licensing and trading standards has been identified by The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, CIPFA, commissioned by the Local Better Regulation Office, LBRO, to review data collections in regulatory services.
Now the findings are being highlighted by LBRO, on behalf of a coalition of national and local regulators, as part of its mandate to enhance the local regulatory system.
LBRO is working with its coalition partners to find ways to reduce the data burden on local councils. This includes establishing how the data is used and how critical it is to future decision making, cutting the number of forms and questions asked, removing duplicate requests, encouraging use of common terminology and developing common data sharing protocols. It is part of the wider effort, led by the Better Regulation Executive, to reduce the burdens on frontline public sector workers.
The CIPFA report, Data Collections from Local Authority Regulatory Services, found councils had to return 139 forms - sometimes the same form more than once - asking for more than 15,000 pieces of mostly activity related information, to a total of 22 central bodies.
Nearly half of the information requests identified in the report are compulsory and in turn longer and more complex. CIPFA also found a considerable amount of duplication in the questions asked.
CIPFA's research found the heaviest burden fell on local authority environmental health services, who handle 63% of these requests. Trading standards services handle the remaining 37%. CIPFA said the cost of data returns was six times higher for environmental health services than for trading standards. In two-tier areas in England, district councils were found to have a higher reporting burden than county councils, as environmental health services are delivered by district councils and trading standards by county councils.
LBRO Chair Clive Grace said: "In order to enhance the way regulatory services are delivered across the UK, we need to identify the barriers to continuous improvement as well as the opportunities.
"We cannot ignore the finding that inefficiency in the system is taking resources away from the front line. In the current economic climate, reducing waste and inefficiency within the public sector is more important than ever and our coalition of national and local regulators will be working closely to reduce these burdens.
Alison Scott, CIPFA's Assistant Director, Local Government, said analysis of the data burden revealed a very varied landscape: "Now we have a good picture of requests and the detail within the requests, it is essential to look at what the central bodies actually do with the information they are requesting from local authorities."
The LBRO coalition for better regulation includes representatives from central government regulatory departments, the national regulators, local government and professional bodies, supported by a reference panel of local authority regulatory services officers from across the UK.
Established to promote consensus and build common approaches and frameworks that simplify the regulatory system, the coalition aims to support local authority regulatory services, promote the better regulation principles and deliver better outcomes for business, consumers and communities.
The LBRO coalition supports a common approach to excellence and best practice in regulatory services and shares the vision to promote and support excellence by working together to affect innovation and change.
The executive summary and full CIPFA report Data Collections from Local Authority Regulatory Services: Data mapping and costing the administrative burden can be found at www.lbro.org.uk/publications-home.html
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