Deregulation and Contracting Out Bill: The task force: High flyer makes comeback

FRANCIS MAUDE, one of the Tory Party's young high flyers who lost his seat at the last election, is to take over from Lord Sainsbury as the Government's special adviser on deregulation.

Losing the North Warwickshire seat he held for seven years brought Mr Maude's political career to an abrupt halt. The new appointment will bring the former Department of Trade and Industry and Foreign Office minister, now head of global privatisation at Morgan Stanley International, back into the political fray.

Yesterday Michael Heseltine, President of the Board of Trade, said Mr Maude, 40, would have his work cut out; the deregulation process had merely reached an 'interim' stage. While the 71 businessmen and women who had served on the seven business task forces had performed well, there was much more to be done by the new Deregulation Task Force, which Mr Maude would chair. Deregulation would remain at the forefront of government policy throughout the 1990s.

The business task forces were set up to advise Mr Heseltine on priorities for the repeal or simplification of regulations and enforcement methods, and to advise ministers on the introduction and enforcement of new regulations, including those from the European Commission.

The main objective was to minimise the costs to business. They covered every area of commerce from retail trade and tourism to pharmaceuticals and finance, and their proposals affect every area of business regulation.

Yesterday Lord Sainsbury said the special needs of small businesses had been one of their central concerns. Too often their special circumstances were forgotten in the formulation of legislation, loading them down with 'unnecessary burdens'. He insisted he and the task forces had executed their roles without weakening employee, consumer or environmental protection.

An eighth task force - looking at regulations covering charities and voluntary organisations - is to report shortly.

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