www.abrahamevents.org

Robin Ellison

Cutting the Red Tape

Are MPs fit to be MPs?
Will the rules on assisted dying be counterproductive?
Why are there 23,000 pages of tax law?
Why is it so hard to deal with my bank?
 

Robin Ellison practised as a solicitor in Manchester and London for over 50 years, acting in the pensions field for major corporates and governments, and as adviser to the House of Commons Select Committee on Work and Pensions. He is Visiting Professor in Pensions Law and Economics at The Bayes Business School in London, and is chairman of several pension funds. He founded several companies including the first SIPP insurer, and an electronic pensions governance system.
He is the author of several books including standard works on the law of pensions and Pension Fund Investment. Recently he has been working with government on establishing a new profession, that of Regulator; his study of regulation, Red Tape: managing excess in law, regulation and the courts is published by Cambridge University Press, and he is currently working on a new book, Rulemaking, intended as a practical guide for regulators and lawmakers.

Robin will remind us that the Jewish community in theory manages to govern itself with 613 written laws, although the oral tradition suggests a few more. In the UK our lawbook is rather larger, and each year there are around 50 new statutes, several thousand statutory instruments, and maybe many thousand additional regulations promulgated by around 900 regulators. Some of these are necessary or useful, but many have unintended adverse consequences and almost all affect our day-to-day lives.
In Red Tape Tangles Robin explores some of the challenges posed by this wave of lawmaking, considers some scandals and tragedies such as Grenfell and Horizon possibly created by regulation, and suggests some solutions to benefit us all – especially as we move to a new law on assisted suicide.