HC Deb 13 July 2000 vol 353 c618W
Mr. Fearn

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on the report from the European Commission's business environment simplification task force of July 1998. [130056]

Ms Hewitt

The Government welcome the recommendations of the BEST task force, particularly those on regulatory simplification and reform, and now looks forward to the first Annual Report on BEST which will be issued by the Commission later this year. Policies on business environment simplification are currently being developed under initiatives such as the proposed Multiannual Programme for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship for 2001–05 and the recently adopted European Charter for Small Enterprises.

The Commission's draft Multiannual Programme proposes the introduction of a new BEST procedure, based on the identification and adoption of best practice in the enterprise field, with work towards simplification and regulatory reform being driven forward as part of the follow-up arising from the Lisbon Special Summit earlier this year.