Simplification means reviewing, reducing and removing regulatory burdens for the public, private and voluntary sectors, either through merging regulations in to a more manageable form or removing inconsistency within or between regulations.
A burden can be administrative e.g. the time taken to fill in forms or the time taken to meet requests for information from regulators or government departments. Or a burden can be policy related, e.g. a compulsory cost of buying new equipment to comply with a regulation.
The aim of simplification is to reduce regulatory burdens wherever possible but without removing the necessary protections regulation provides, for the environment or workers for example. An important part of the simplification process is to gather practical suggestions from those with experience of being regulated - businesses, voluntary and public sector organisations and individuals - that can inform Government thinking on how to simplify regulation in a range of areas.