What a strange nation we are.

While we haughtily look our noses down at the over regulated nations both near and far abroad, we find ourselves quite possibly the most regulated nation in Europe - maybe not officially, but certainly the UK implements European Regulations more officiously than most.

Or at least we do with almost all of the regulations we don't want!

And yet, here we now have the F Gas Regulation, officially implemented law as of the July 4.

But even now after the deadline date we still have conflicting stories and rumours that HMG seems oblivious to or are unable to answer.

A year or so ago most people in the industry assumed that REFCOM would become the company registration scheme; many thought this would mean some degree of industry self-regulation.

Since REFCOM was invented by industry (the HVCA's Refrigeration and Air Conditioning group to be precise) for the express purpose of raising awareness of the problems with ozone depleting substances being deliberately or inadvertently released to atmosphere and to ensure that standards are raised amongst its members' engineers, this would seem to be a logical approach to policing the regulation - the responsible side of the industry has been calling for mandatory registration for years in order to clear out the cowboys and raise the overall standards and image of our industry.

But it was decided that REFCOM couldn't do this and the policing was given to local authorities -even though LACORS (the local authority coordinating office) say they're not the authority!

So we have the European Commission (where it originated); the European Parliament (where it became law); Westminster (to enact the UK legislative implementation); Defra, BERR and Climate Change departments carrying out the actual implementation; LACORS supposedly coordinating each local authority; The local authorities themselves; And finally REFCOM making sure that there is a simple publicly accessed database of registered companies for end users to be able to check from.

Seven layers of bureaucracy and still no operative register!

No wonder there's been confusion. If our legislators are reading this and in the interests of making this regulation work as fully and effectively as possible looking towards the 2011 review process, I'd like to suggest some common sense measures.

·Industry wanted mandatory registration of operatives - so give it to us, through the ACRIB register;

·Allow REFCOM to toughen up its criteria, nearer to that of the voluntary scheme - which remains in place at the original higher benchmark and includes proper independent auditing;

·Restrict sales of refrigerants by wholesalers to those companies and/or operatives who can prove to be competent by publicly accessible database - there is no real question of restriction of trade here, merely competence/incompetence of people being supplied;

·Stop sales of split systems that contain a holding charge (to make sure no unregistered companies can buy pre-charged systems and bypass the rules) - again no trade restriction issues, just common sense!

These simple steps are what industry wanted when F Gas was first mooted in Brussels. What we've ended up with is a far more complicated, far less effective regulation. If our politicians are serious about cutting emission levels they really have to stop playing games and allow industry to implement the Regulation properly - themselves.