Leader: A task for a fresh pair of scissors

Red tape is a soft target for politicians and academics alike - there have been numerous statements and working groups over the years promising to wipe out this scourge of the public services. But modern demands for accountability and a desire (perhaps only recently understood at the beleaguered Home Office) for self-protecting record-keeping make this easier said than done. In that context, this week's launch of a higher education concordat, committing 16 agencies to reducing bureaucracy in data collection and quality assurance, is a major achievement for the Higher Education Regulation Review Group, set up by Alan Johnson less than two years ago. Government departments, as well as the research councils, the funding council and the Quality Assurance Agency, have signed up to action plans that will be renewed annually.

Launching the concordat this week, Bill Rammell, the Minister for Higher Education, insisted that this was no passing fad. Ministers across Whitehall would be judged on their success in cutting red tape. As Dame Patricia Hodgson leaves the chair of the review group to become principal of Newnham College, Cambridge, the Government is looking for a suitable successor - an "enforcer", in Dame Patricia's words.

The enforcer will face three clear challenges. He or she will have to keep on top of "new growth" - the springing up of new initiatives and their accompanying bureaucracy just as others are dampened down. Vice-chancellors want someone they can alert to this, and the review group will have a place on its website for complaints. Then there will be the daunting task of bringing the myriad professional and statutory bodies on board. The Architects Registration Board has signed the concordat and the hope is that other bodies will follow suit. But for many of the health bodies, cutting down on regulation of courses is no easy matter - dogged as they are by the Shipman legacy and a Government fearful of any risk to public health.

Finally, the review group will have to continue to tread the fine balance between regulation and accountability. Universities are generally judged to be mature institutions that must not be hampered by over-regulation. But in a less regulated market environment, funding councils must ensure that they can spot institutions at risk of failure. Their streamlined data streams must provide the right information at the right time.