Recycling: Too much information

Since the Department for Trade and Industry was turned into ‘BERR’ in June 2007, many have been waiting to find out what the new name means. We’ve seen plenty of focus on ‘Business’ and ‘Enterprise’, but not as yet much in the way of ‘Regulatory Reform’.

That all changed shortly before Christmas, when BERR released a report entitled ‘Too Much Information Can Harm’. It is the Government’s job to save us from the excessive amount of product warning and information labels that we face when trollying up the aisles, said the department’s chief, John Hutton:

‘This information is expensive to provide, costing business over £1.5 billion a year, and simply confuses consumers. It is unacceptable that consumers are taking decisions in the dark, unaware of the potential dangers or consequences. We are acting to give the power back to consumers to make informed choices by rationalising information and making sure it is presented as simply as possible.’

Good heavens! Have we been making rash, foolhardy decisions for all these years? Let us, in that case, have more information! No, hang on: we’ve got too...

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