February 2026: Making red tape visible

Dear members,

We began this month with a call, not a conclusion. On 10 February, Reseated launched and issued the Founders Charter, RC/A/2026/1, alongside calls for evidence across its seven councils. The Red Tape Council’s call, RC/RT/2026/1, opened RT-001: how rules and administrative processes can make it harder for small businesses to get established and keep operating.

That distinction matters. We are not yet presenting a finished standard or claiming to know the answer. Our first responsibility is to listen carefully, gather comparable reports, and understand whether a problem is recurring across places and businesses. Only then can we test a proposed fix, invite public comment, and put it to an Assembly ballot.

What we know so far

As of 27 February, the Red Tape Council has 10 members from seven countries. It has received four reports, from four countries. All four are categorized as permit situations. The reports came from Singapore, Türkiye, Canada, and India, with one report from each. In the last 30 days, four reports were filed.

Across those four reports, the median amount at stake is approximately US$32,616. That is a measure across the reports, not a figure we can attribute to any one member. The team-size breakdown is also a reminder that “small business” does not describe one single situation: 25% of the reports are from members working alone, 50% from businesses with two to nine people, and 25% from businesses with 50 to 249 people.

For context, the wider Assembly has seated 127 members in 38 countries. Members have filed 212 reports from 39 countries. Those totals are a beginning, not a verdict. The numbers tell us where members have spoken up; they do not yet tell us how common each experience is beyond the people who have reported it.

One member’s report

A member in Canada filed a report categorized as a permit situation.

But the category is not abstract to the person who filed it. A permit process can sit between a business and the next practical step it needs to take. That is why a report that currently fits in one line deserves attention, and why we need members to tell us what happened in their own words, with identifying details removed where they prefer. We need to know what was required, where the process became difficult, how much time or money was involved, and whether the member could get a clear answer.

We will not make the evidence sound more certain than it is. We will make it easier to see what the evidence supports.

What we are learning

Four reports are too few to establish a broad pattern. They are enough to show that permit processes are a concrete concern among the Red Tape Council’s first reporters, and that the issue has appeared in four different countries. They also show why the details matter. “Permit problem” could describe very different rules, offices, delays, and consequences. If we combine unlike experiences too quickly, we risk proposing a fix that helps no one.

Our agenda for RT-001 asks whether new rules affecting businesses should include a small-business impact test; whether people should be able to complete related steps through a one-stop digital process; whether service times should be published; and whether a permit application should sometimes be treated as approved when an authority misses a stated deadline. These are questions for evidence and discussion, not decisions already made by the Council.

As reports accumulate, we will look for the five parts of a pattern: Volume, Frequency, Consistency, Spread, and Corroboration. A number alone is not enough. We need to understand whether members are encountering the same kind of obstacle, how often it occurs, how widely it is spread, and whether separate accounts support one another.

What comes next

Our next work is to keep the evidence channel open and improve the quality of what we learn. If you file a report, please be as specific as you can about the process, the point at which it stalled or became difficult, and the practical effect on your business. You do not need to name your business. Please do not include information about another person that you are not entitled to share.

The Assembly’s next dated milestones on the current calendar are 19 March, when the Rules of Procedure are due to be considered by ballot, and 24 March, when the UK government’s late-payment consultation response is due. These are Assembly-wide and external milestones respectively; neither is a decision on RT-001. The Red Tape Council’s immediate task remains evidence-gathering. We will share developments with members as the work proceeds, rather than skip ahead to a proposed standard before the reports justify one.

Thank you to the 10 Red Tape Council members who have joined from seven countries, and especially to those who have already taken the time to file a report. Thank you also to the members across the wider Assembly who are helping establish a process grounded in experience rather than assumption. I am grateful to the people who have shared evidence from Singapore, Türkiye, Canada, and India. I will not attach names or cities to those reports without the members’ consent.