Small Firms: Assistance Schemes (Hansard, 12 April 1983)

§ Baroness Sharples
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.

§ Lord Glenarthur
My Lords, experience has shown that not only the owner-managers of small businesses but also the bank managers, accountants and solicitors to whom they often turn for advice are less than fully aware of the various schemes available to assist small businesses. Research has confirmed this view. The Government, therefore, decided to engage the services of an advertising agency to mount a major publicity campaign through television and the national press to publicise among managers of existing small businesses and the professions the 86 schemes of assistance set up by successive Governments to help the small firms sector. This campaign started on 18th March and will continue until June. Concurrently with the advertising campaign, 100 regional seminars are being held for members of the professions to brief them on the schemes.

§ Baroness Sharples
My Lords, may I thank my noble friend for that very comprehensive reply. Can he further tell us whether schools are being kept informed of these different schemes which are available, because youngsters leaving school do have problems? Further, can my noble friend say why, when these businesses are established, red tape is so excessive for them?

§ Lord Glenarthur
My Lords, I do not have the details with me as to what is being done specifically for schools but I shall certainly find out and let my noble friend know. Red tape—form—filling-is something which is kept constantly under review and it is something which the Government have acted on. Over one million forms have been saved in the past few years. Of course the Government will do all that they can to keep formalities to a minimum.

§ Lord Byers
My Lords, I wonder whether I can ask the Minister if he will ask the advertising agency, or whoever is in charge of this campaign, to draw attention to the help which the enterprise agencies, business ventures and other organisations of the private and public sectors, working together, can give to the small businesses in this country?

§ Lord Glenarthur
My Lords, I shall certainly draw the views of the noble Lord to the attention of my right honourable friend the Secretary of State.

§ Lord Elwyn-Jones
My Lords, are the Government not in danger of putting too much confidence in the work of advertising agencies?

§ Lord Glenarthur
My Lords, I detect a certain barb in the noble and learned Lord's question.

Lord Paget of Northampton
My Lords, surely we are not going to have an advertising agency. In this occasion the great advantage which the Government can confer on private enterprise is getting their publicity free.

§ Lord Glenarthur
My Lords, the fact remains that over the years successive Governments have set up many schemes to help small businesses. The message has not got across to all of them. They are not aware of what is available. That is why the Government are now mounting this publicity campaign.

§ Lord Taylor of Blackburn
My Lords, will the Minister consider setting up some kind of consultancy agency to co-ordinate all the activities that are going on? It is all very well for the Minister to say that there is an advertising agency that is doing the work for him, but just look at the papers in my hand! These are from the advertising agency with all the information there; but the trouble and frustration that a small businessman finds in going to one agency is that he is passed on to the next agency, and so it goes on. This is where the red tape comes in. Will the Minister consider my request to set up some kind of co-ordination?

§ Lord Glenarthur
My Lords, I do not think that the scheme is really working as badly as the noble Lord suggests. The first three weeks of advertising resulted in some 70,000 responses, which I do not think is at all bad. In fact, we expect the number of responses to increase further as it becomes more widely known.

§ Lord Mackie of Benshie
My Lords, might not the greatest help to small businesses be to stimulate the economy out of the trough in which it finds itself?

§ Lord Glenarthur
My Lords, one of the ways that we shall improve the economy is to encourage small businesses, and that is the point of the exercise.

§ Viscount Mountgarret
My Lords, referring to red tape, does the noble Lord not think that we should get on better if blue tape were reduced?

§ Lord Alexander of Potterhill
My Lords, in addition to drawing attention to anything that may be done in relation to the schools, may I suggest to the Minister that it would be much more important to be quite sure that the colleges of further education are fully apprised of the opportunities?

§ Lord Glenarthur
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord. As I said to my noble friend Lady Sharpies, I shall certainly make sure that the whole question of schools and further education is looked at.

Lord Bruce of Donington
My Lords, before embarking on the expenditure of taxpayers' money on a further advertising campaign, will the noble Lord bear in mind that the schemes have received very good publicity indeed, and that all that is really necessary is the exercise by those that read the publicity of the ordinary principles of free enterprise?

§ Lord Glenarthur
Yes, my Lords. Free enterprise includes advertising. That is what firms are allowed to do. The total cost of the campaign will be about £2.5 million. It is a very small proportion—less than 1 per cent.—of the total amount made available annually by the Government to the small firms' sector.