§ Lord Trefgarneasked Her Majesty's Government:
What progress is being made on the implementation of the EC directive on small and medium-sized company accounts.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Reay)The Department of Trade and Industry has today issued a consultation document inviting comments on draft regulations to implement the EC directive on small and medium-sized company accounts.
These draft regulations, and our decision to bring the directive into force well in advance of the required date, give a clear indication of the Government's commitment to continue to reduce the regulatory burden on small companies.
The directive enables EC member states to reduce accounting requirements, and to increase the maximum financial limits defining small and medium-sized companies by 25 per cent.
In addition to implementing the directive, the regulations would exempt small companies from a number of existing accounting requirements, as foreshadowed in the current programme of work under the deregulation initiative, which the Government announced on 18th December 1990.
Copies of the consultation document have been placed in the Library. Views are invited by 19th March.