London: 7th January 2008

The UK Better Regulation Executive - Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) has announced a public consultation on Good guidance on regulation. The consultation opened on process the 7th of January and closes on the 31st of March 2008. The consultation document - A Code of Practice on Good Guidance on Regulation (Dated: January 2008) poses 17 questions.

In the introduction of the (28 page) consultation document it states:

“This Consultation seeks your views on a Code of Practice on Good Guidance on Regulation. The Code sets out to provide a public statement of what any organisation can expect from government1 and independent regulators guidance on regulation.

The Government has committed2 to producing timely guidance; this Code of Practice sets out the golden rules of Good Guidance. We are seeking views from businesses and third sector organisations affected by regulation. We are also interested to hear from Non-Departmental Public Bodies and others that work with regulation. If you deal with regulation you are invited to respond to this consultation.”

Annex B of the consultation document includes the stakeholder groups that have been sent a copy of the consultation document – it is noticeable that there are few Information Society related bodies included in the list – perhaps reflecting the past Industrial Age rather than the Information Age especially when considering the issues related to the Knowledge economy and its regulation.