Red tape is simply bad form

WHEN Hugh Barber started working on farms more than 45 years ago there was almost no paperwork to be done.

Now the dairy farmer spends about an hour and a half each day in his office filling in forms.

He also works some weekends to catch up on the backlog.

Mr Barber, who lives in Mereside Road, Mere, said the quantity of red tape was now unacceptable.

"There's too much of it," he said. "You spend most of your working day filling forms in.

"Then a lot of it's duplicated between different departments. It's so frustrating. If you do it once it should be enough."

Farmers now have more paperwork because of health and safety regulations, environmental protection rules and complicated subsidy claims. "It would be very nice if it was reduced, but I really can't see it happening," said Mr Barber, 60.

The Forum of Private Business in Knutsford has campaigned for years about the burden of red tape on companies.

The lobbying group in Drury Lane joined Labour's task force for cutting regulations in 1997.

Then two years ago they produced survey results that showed managers spent 10 hours a week complying with rules such as employment legislation.

Spokesman Kieron Hayes said many of the Forum's members were still unaware of the point of most red tape and regulation.

"They just see it as a constant barrage quite often and do not understand why it's been introduced in the first place," he said.

Ros Hipkiss, head teacher at Manor Park Primary School, believes paperwork began to increase 16 years ago when the National Curriculum was introduced.

But she said most of the forms were still important because they helped to track the progress of students.

"I think it's important for continuity so everyone has an idea of what's going on," she said.

"I do normally enjoy it, but that depends if it's necessary or whether it's been handed down or across."

Mrs Hipkiss, who has worked in education for 36 years, believes red tape increased for teachers during the 1990s.

During that time many staff worked late or took paperwork home to cope with the burden.

But she said the Government was beginning to tackle the amount done to prepare classes and evaluate children. "I think it's just starting to go down," she said.

"I actually enjoy paperwork that's to do with evaluation. The majority of paperwork we do like that is useful."

Knutsford firemen spend time filling in paperwork to record incidents, meetings, visits and equipment inspections.

Watch manager Sean Murphy, who has worked in the service for six years, believes regulations are important.

But he said modernisation in the service, linked to an improved pay scheme awarded after strikes last year, had increased paperwork.

"Some of it seems unnecessary, but where do you draw the line to say we don't record something?" he said.

The average fireman still spends most of his time teaching fire safety or attending incidents.

But Mr Murphy said more senior staff often spent most of their time dealing with paperwork.

"For a watch commander about 70% of his time is spent on it," he said.

"The higher up you go the more you've got to keep on top of."

The Mobberley Road fire station also has to log incidents such as harassment or bullying. Mr Murphy, who joined the

Knutsford crew this year, said most regulations, such as equipment checks, were necessary because it could be a matter of life or death.

"No matter how much there is, if you've got to do it then you've got to do it," he said.

Three years ago Knutsford Police Station employed Pc John Evans to try to cut paperwork done by officers on the beat.

PC Evans, who has been in the police for 33 years, said the paperwork needed to investigate some crimes, when it was obvious what had happened, was unacceptable.

"It seems an awful lot to go through when it might be something a witness is saying in the first place," he said.

"But it's not as if the Cheshire force are not looking into this. They've got a number of people looking into how much we're doing at the moment."

The average police officer in Knutsford can spend about 20% of their time filling in forms and completing evidence files.

But Pc Evans now allocates up to three quarters of his week to paperwork.

"I'm not your typical bobby as nearly all my time is spent doing paperwork," he said.

"But I do that to alleviate the burden on officers in the Pandas."

Much of Pc Evans' time is now spent collecting information about minor crashes near the M6 services or on the A556.

He said reports of those incidents could take time to compile because drivers often lived in other parts of the country.

"If you give those to a hard-pressed Panda bobby they haven't got time to deal with it," he said. Pc Evans believes the

amount of paperwork has increased drastically over the past 30 years.

But he said that had much to do with an increase in the quantity and quality of officers' work.

"It's gone up dramatically because we're busier now," he said.

"There is an increase in what we're required to do for similar sort of jobs. But the police and the courts now also require a higher standard of investigation."

The cost of red tape to a small or medium-sized firm is about £5,000 a year.

Many of the regulations that affect businesses in Britain originate from Europe.

When Brussels introduces new laws, such as additions to employment legislation, companies here have to adapt to them.

Last year, in his pre-Budget statement to Parliament, Chancellor Gordon Brown pledged to abolish or reform 147 regulations that affected businesses.

But The Forum of Private Business is now campaigning for small businesses to have their say when the Government introduces more regulations.

Mr Hayes said the group believed a lot of red tape was necessary to protect employers and companies.

But he said the Forum and its members should be consulted when Labour discussed any new rules.

"What we have found is that when they do regulation impact assessments the input from small firms is very minimal," he said.

"You've got to bear in mind that when a company only has one person doing their payroll it's going to impact on them more."