HC Deb 13 May 1996 vol 277 cc628-9
14. Mr. Timms

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what steps he is taking to improve the competitiveness of small businesses. [27679]

17. Mrs. Clwyd

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what steps he is taking to improve the competitiveness of small businesses. [27682]

Mr. Freeman

The Prime Minister announced a range of measures to help small firms at the final "Your Business Matters" conference in March. They included further reductions in bureaucracy, measures to help with late payment and a radical review of the Government's business support schemes. The Government will respond in full to the issues raised at the conferences in a publication produced alongside the third competitiveness White Paper in the summer.

Mr. Timms

Why, then, have the Government placed the new burden on small businesses of having to check the immigration status of job applicants? Would not it have been better for the Government to have supported Labour's amendment to the Asylum and Immigration Bill, which would have exempted firms with fewer than 10 employees from that requirement and from the £5,000 fine when they get it wrong?

Mr. Freeman

I know that my right hon. and learned Friend the Home Secretary has made great efforts to ensure that the burdens on businesses caused by their enforcing the provisions in the Asylum and Immigration Bill are minimised as much as possible. However, the provisions must be effective and we cannot simply exempt small firms from the Bill's general requirements.

Mrs. Clwyd

How can the Minister expect to be taken seriously on this issue when his boss boasts about stringing along his creditors and when late payments to small businesses doubled when his boss was President of the Board of Trade?

Mr. Freeman

That is a travesty of what my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary of State said or implied or believes. In any case, my right hon. Friend is well able to answer for himself and has already done so.

As for setting a standard for prompt payment, the Prime Minister and the President of the Board of Trade have made it plain that the Government must set that standard. The Prime Minister has taken steps to ensure that each Department examines its own practices and pays promptly but, very often, the reason for late payment is that there is some fundamental problem with the invoice or bill itself. One cannot expect Government Departments, which are dispensing taxpayers' money, automatically to pay every bill simply because there is a payment deadline to be met. I hope that the hon. Lady is satisfied with that reply.