In his new role as Minister for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency, Jacob Rees-Mogg has called on Sun readers to write to him to tell him about “any petty old EU regulation” that he should scrap.
In the letter, Rees-Mogg rightly applauds the Vaccines Taskforce, and accurately identifies possible regulatory reforms around procurement (we'll have a paper out on this soon), data and medicines. However, like the Red Tape Challenge before it, this call to action will probably fail to get good ideas.
Polly Mackenzie from Demos has a Tweet thread explaining why. It covers a few different angles – a key one being the inability of people to disentangle who’s to blame for a particular regulation. She brings up the example of who is to blame for making you fill out a bank form. The bank? The FCA? The EU? International money laundering rules? Parliament?
It’s a fair point, but the people writing to Rees-Mogg don’t actually need to do the analysis. It should be the job of government. Instead, I think the real problem is that from inside the system it’s difficult to know that things could be better.
Of course, organisations like ours can act as a conduit for good ideas. For example, drawing on the work of Jan Rosenow of the Regulatory Assistance Project and conversation with entrepreneurs, Eamonn Ives argued in our comprehensive Green Entrepreneurship report with the Enterprise Trust that the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) ratings were biassed against environmentally friendly technologies, like heat pumps. This week, much to our delight, it has been announced that EPC ratings will stop penalising heat pumps.
It’s a small victory, but we’ve had quite a few of those over the years, and aren’t short of more ideas.
Just this week Alec Stapp’s observed that the “UK requires merging firms to mail physical documents to every single one of their shareholders”, following news that a billion pound merger was delayed because they can’t find enough paper to mail out more than 120 million pages of docs.
Stapp’s observation points to a way I think governments could meaningfully engage beyond think tanks and lobby groups: by talking with people who have experienced how other countries do things better.
I’ve bored regular readers enough about digital government in Estonia, but it’s true of many policy areas and many countries. While copying other countries might not be the post-Brexit vibe Rees-Mogg is looking for, if he or a successor decide to go to the public for ideas it would be worth asking those that have experience beyond our borders – whether they are (or have been) immigrants or expats.
Of course, you don’t need to have experienced another country to know how to spot these things – in the US, Flexport founder and CEO Ryan Petersen just used common sense to solve L.A.'s Shipping Jam, pointing out that they should end restrictions on stacking empty containers more than two high – but by narrowing the question Rees-Mogg would get more considered replies.
As Mackenzie argues, the Red Tape Challenge just mobilised lots of activists calling for regulations to be maintained that the government had no intention of changing. Asking a question where respondents are forced to actually look for meaningful improvements – even if it’s based on practical experience rather than intimate policy knowledge – could help government decide where to focus.
What Are The Odds?
A decade ago the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) found that only 40% of MPs got the following question correct: “If you toss a coin twice, what is the probability of getting two heads?”
They asked the same question to the current Parliament. This time round, 52% gave the correct answer, so there has been some improvement, but the result will still be disconcerting for many.
Some will use this as a stick to bash MPs with. But that won’t solve anything. We need to focus instead on making it more appealing to be an MP and we should also think of ways MPs can continue to learn while in the job (even if it’s things that they probably should have picked up in school).
MPs spend a lot of their time talking to people who are more expert in the thing being discussed than they are. They can’t possibly be expected to know everything and the only way to get through it is to bluff. This is why many MPs, even in conversation, speak as though they’ve been asked to give an impromptu speech, rather than have a proper discussion where the goal is learning and solving problems.
I don’t have all the answers though – just like the MPs who the RSS surveyed.
As a Bee
We have so many events coming up that it’s easiest just to share them in a cleaner format:
– Small business owners should register their interest to join Emma Jones MBE for a discussion on access to finance on 21 February from 4pm to 5pm. Your thoughts will feed into our Small Business Forum project: Access all Areas.
– Entrepreneurs and policymakers are welcome to join James Perry, founder of BCorp, who will lead a virtual discussion on non-financial reporting on 24 February from 10am to 11am as part of our Green Entrepreneurship Forum.
– Female founders from Wales (virtual, 24 February), London (in-person 10 March), or the South West and South Coast (in-person 24 March) should get involved in our Female Founder Forum roundtables.
– Anyone interested in levelling the playing field for underserved founders will want to sign up for our virtual panel discussion on 3 March from 4pm to 5pm. This part of our Inclusive Innovation Forum.
– Tech entrepreneurs will want to join the founder Dinesh Dhamija and other entrepreneurs for a roundtable breakfast discussion on the future of immigration.
– MPs, Peers and sharing economy entrepreneurs will want to pop into the House of Lords on 15 March from 3.30pm to 5pm for a spot of afternoon tea.
– Patrons, Advisers and the founders of high-growth businesses are welcome to join us for a Private Entrepreneurs’ Dinner on 22 March 2022 from 7.30pm to 9.30pm to discuss the new Step-Up Coalition.
Sun Don't Shine