§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps have been taken to reduce the burden of form filling on small businesses, following Section 55 of this year's Finance Act.
§ Mr. Anthony GrantAs a first step a comprehensive inquiry to be addressed to wholesalers in 1974 has been postponed for a year so that value added tax information can be used to confine the inquiry to a sample of wholesalers. Outside organisations are now being consulted about possible ways of using value added tax information to improve the statistics available for the distributive and service trades which would at the same time reduce the burden of form filling. A notice about this was included inTrade and Industry, 4th October 1973.