The Taskforce on Innovation, Growth and Regulatory Reform (TIGRR)
has today (16th June) reported its recommendations to
the Prime Minister on how the UK can reshape regulation and seize
new opportunities from Brexit.
Earlier this year, the Prime Minister asked former ministers
MP,
MP, and
to identify how the UK can take advantage of its
new-found regulatory freedoms and stimulate growth, innovation
and competition across the economy and level up across the United
Kingdom.
The report sets out over 100 recommendations, identifying
specific high-growth opportunities reflecting on feedback from
over 75 industry meetings and roundtables. It demonstrates how,
with ambition and vision on the part of the Government, the UK
can deliver on the promises of Brexit without abandoning our high
standards - unlocking growth and investment in technology to help
level up the country.
The report sets out a new framework for regulation based on a UK
common law approach: replacing the slow, bureaucratic and EU
process reliant on negotiations between 27 countries.
Free to set its own rules, the MPs propose that the UK adopt a
bold new regulatory framework based on a new ‘Proportionality
Principle’, agile, digital regulatory innovation, and new duties
on regulators to consider the impact of their rules on UK
competitiveness and productivity.
The 120-page Report sets out significant immediate economic
opportunities for the UK to lead and set the international
standard in areas such as pension investment, data, and clinical
trials. Key proposals include:
- Regulatory reform to allow pension schemes to invest in
innovative start-up and scale-up businesses which could unlock
over £100bn of investment in the high growth high tech sectors of
the future, whilst still maintaining prudent protections and
safeguards.
- Replacing GDPR with a UK Data Protections Framework with
enhanced rights and controls for consumers and is more
proportionate for charities, smaller businesses to free small
businesses from some of the 80+ working hours that around half of
them report spending to sustain GDPR compliance.
- Building on the UK success with the Covid vaccine to boost UK
clinical trials - replacing the EU Clinical Trials Directive with
a new UK Trials Framework built on the UK Covid trials. This will
be a major boost to the UK clinical trials sector - a market
worth £2.7bn - the second biggest in the world - that already
supports more than 47,000 UK jobs - increasing those benefits and
spreading them more evenly across the country.
MP
said: “Now that the UK has left the EU it is important
to change our approach to regulation which reflects the needs of
the UK. This report shows the way ahead with the move to the
proportionality principle setting a more flexible and balanced
approach to future regulations and changes to existing
regulations. Importantly this will help new markets develop, as
well as releasing significant amounts of capital from existing
successful markets to help level up the UK post the pandemic.”
said: “The pace of technological
innovation is creating real opportunities for the UK, but too
often we lead the science but fail to commercialise in the UK. We
now have an opportunity to tackle that by setting the new
regulatory standards key to investor and consumer confidence in
new high growth sectors: from nutraceuticals to Ai, digital
health and new fuels like hydrogen. This isn’t about scrapping
our commitment to high agri-environmental standards or workers
rights, it's about establishing UK global leadership in more
agile, digital and evidence-based regulation. The ten high growth
sectors we have identified can all deliver serious growth for
post-COVID recovery for all parts of the UK.”
MP
said: “Taking back control over making our own laws
means we can adapt regulation to reflect our national interest.
We can adopt a better, more targeted, more proportionate approach
because decisions on our regulations are no longer dependent on
lengthy negotiations and compromises with 27 other countries. We
must use this new freedom as an opportunity to get ahead in the
high growth, high tech, sectors of the future. This report
provides a blueprint for how we can do this, including unlocking
billions of pounds of investment in start-up businesses and
innovative technology.”
The recommendations in this report demonstrate the huge
opportunities the UK has with its new-found powers to create our
own laws, to lead globally on standards, and foster an approach
which ensures that regulatory systems are fit for the economy of
the future and have the agility to adapt to changing technology.
Facilitating competition and new market entrants should be at the
heart of our approach to regulation.
Sir said:
“The UK Covid Recovery Trial shows what the UK can do when it is
free to move at pace.
“We were only able to do this because of the UK Life Science
Strategy Reforms of 2011-16.
“Medicine is changing fast: genomics & digital health are
transforming healthcare. As this Report sets out - the UK has a
huge opportunity. We need to grasp it. Or risk falling behind.”
ENDS
Notes for editors
Taskforce Terms of Reference: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/taskforce-on-innovation-growth-and-regulatory-reform/taskforce-on-innovation-growth-and-regulatory-reform-tigrr-terms-of-reference
