Better Regulation Task Force (BRTF)

In 2005 the BRTF published a report (Regulation: less is more: reducing burdens, improving outcomes) which called for Government to slash the administrative costs it imposed on business, potentially increasing GDP by more than 1% over the medium term.

The two key conclusions of the report were:

• Government should a reduce the administrative burden of regulation and its cost. This involved first measuring the administrative burden and then setting a target to reduce it.
• Government should also apply a 'One in One out' approach to new regulation, with Ministers and departments giving as high a priority to simplifying or removing over-complex and burdensome regulation as they do to the introduction of new.

As a result of this report all government departments and major regulators were committed to publishing rolling programmes of simplification of regulation.

The FCO is absolutely committed to the better regulation agenda. We have therefore attempted to produce an ambitious, credible, quantified and deliverable simplification plan.

Simplification plan 2007

We are looking at ways to simplify our own internal administrative information procedures. We have also upgraded our on-line systems to enable us to centralise information on staff and expenditure so that we better align our resources with priorities.

This forms part of a wider programme of change designed to ensure that we can spend more of our resources delivering services to customers inside and outside government, than we do at present. A Change Unit was established in 2007 with a remit to ensure the major change activities in the FCO are coherent, achievable, realise the FCO’s business strategy and deliver an agreed set of benefits which make the organisation more efficient and effective.