HC Deb 02 July 1997 vol 297 cc279-80
2. Mr. Bayley

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what measures he has taken to reduce the burden of bureaucracy on small businesses. [4928]

Mr. Kilfoyle

As promised in our manifesto, we are in the process of appointing a revitalised task force, half of whose members will represent small business. We look forward to working with them to cut red tape and ensure that burdensome new regulations are not imposed on small businesses.

Mr. Bayley

I welcome the fact that small businesses will be involved in that process. The small business contribution to the Government's welfare-to-work programme will be extremely important. As someone who has set up and run a small business, may I tell my hon. Friend that there should be necessary regulation to protect businesses, staff and customers, but that unnecessary regulation is a headache? Will he spread the message among all his ministerial colleagues to make sure that regulation is fine tuned so that it is imposed only where absolutely necessary?

Mr. Kilfoyle

I congratulate my hon. Friend, who has a long and proud record of an enlightened approach to government, especially in the local government arena. We have already made many contacts with Ministers cross-departmentally about the virtues of better quality regulation. We will shortly be establishing a cross-departmental "access business" group of Ministers so that we can break down many of the existing barriers for small businesses. We hope to achieve that by means of the most appropriate forms of information technology currently available.