HC Deb 25 March 1999 vol 328 cc520-1
13. Dr. Vincent Cable (Twickenham)

What plans the Government have to reduce the burden of regulation on small businesses. [77045]

The Minister for Small Firms, Trade and Industry (Mr. Michael Wills)

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has made it clear that one of the key tasks of my Department's new Small Business Service will be to help small businesses get to grips with regulation and provide them with practical assistance to cut the burdens of compliance.

Dr. Cable

Does the Minister accept that there is growing concern in small business about the growing cost of compliance with regulation and about the increasingly cumbersome tax administration associated with, for example, the working families tax credit and the proposed energy tax? To advance his agenda, will he issue an annual impact assessment of Government policy on small business, partly to reassure businesses and partly to discipline Government?

Mr. Wills

We recognise that regulations can impose a disproportionate burden on small firms. We want to do everything that we can to help. To set the hon. Gentleman's mind at rest, I shall run through some of the things that we have already done. We listened to the comments made on the national minimum wage regulations. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State acted swiftly and decisively to deregulate in response to some of those comments. There is now no requirement to put details on pay slips or to keep detailed records.

We are bringing tax and national insurance administration together in April, which will provide real deregulatory gains for employers. We have asked the better regulation task force to review the impact of regulation on productivity. Only last week, we issued a consultation document seeking views on proposals to raise the Companies Acts threshold for small and medium-sized companies. We are establishing the small business service, which will provide small firms with practical assistance in the matter.

Fiona Mactaggart (Slough)

Does my hon. Friend the Minister know of the concern of many small businesses that want to implement some of the new proposals, such as the working time directive and family friendly employment policies, but find it difficult because they lack a step-by-step guide on what to do? I have had representations on that from science, home security and other companies in Slough. Will he consider producing not only an impact statement but a guide for small businesses on how to implement regulations? They would welcome it.

Mr. Wills

My hon. Friend makes an extremely good point, as always. That will be one of the first tasks that the small business service will undertake.

Mr. Ian Bruce (South Dorset)

I am sure that the unpaid Under-Secretary of State knows that the minimum wage is one of the big regulatory problems with which small businesses are grappling at present. Why do the detailed documents that have been distributed—they go on at some length—refer to taking national insurance and tax off the minimum wage before it is paid, when the regulations do not allow people to do that?

Mr. Wills

The hon. Gentleman is concerned, characteristically, about my monetary status as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary, and I am grateful for his concern.

I have already said that we are deeply conscious of small firms' anxieties about the minimum wage. That is precisely why my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State acted as he did.