John Hutton

“Advances in technology and in our understanding of illness and disease together with an expanded workforce and greater resources will allow us to provide more services to a higher quality.”

“Here in the UK the government has decided to accept the recommendations of the Better Regulation Task Force to measure and make targeted reductions in the administrative costs - the red tape costs - that regulations impose on business.”

“Road testing the effects of regulation on European business must become second nature to the European Union.”

“More than 50% of significant new regulations that impact on business in the UK now emanate from the EU.”

“If we took Chaucer's writings at face value, we'd have to conclude he was a complete drip.”

“At the heart of these challenges lies the question of how the institutions of the European Union make laws, the types of laws they pass and the effectiveness with which those laws are implemented on civil society and the economy.”

“There is no such thing as free regulation.”

“And, in the past, it has been all too easy for legislators to load costs onto business in order to meet broader social goals. And costs for business means costs for consumers.”

“Our objective must therefore be to ensure EU better regulation contributes towards delivering a modern European Union which relentlessly focuses on building a dynamic and innovative economy equipped to meet the challenges of the 21st century.”

“My view is that targets, properly constructed and applied across public services have been fundamental to past successes and will be an essential part of sustaining progress into the future.”

“As Tony Blair has made clear, our fundamental challenge is how to make Europe work better.”