§ Mr. David ShawTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on the achievements of(a) his policies and (b) his Department in helping small businesses over the last 12 months as against the previous 12 months; and if he will publish the performance indicators by which his Department monitors those achievements and the statistical results of such monitoring.
§ Mr. HagueThe Government continue to help small businesses, through improvements to the business climate, through deregulation and through specific programmes of support and assistance.
Measures operated by the Department to assist small business include:
Production of a self-employed starter pack "Working for Yourself". This assists the newly self-employed in understanding their National Insurance liability.Introduction, from April 1993, of a quarterly billing system for self-employed National Insurance contributions.Other measures aimed at business in general, which should help small businesses, include:For national insurance contributions (NIC) changes made from April 1993 to align the treatment of certain expenses with PAYE rules.Setting up of a working group, on which small businesses are represented, to consider further options for reducing the 724W administrative burden caused by the operation of different rules for PAYE and NIC purposes in defining earnings and expenses.Establishing a working group of employers' organisations, which includes representatives of small business, to examine the scope for removing or easing the administrative burdens imposed by the statutory sick pay scheme.The Department has a system to monitor proposals which impact on business, to ensure that the needs and costs to small businesses are taken into account, although there are no performance indicators specifically for monitoring achievements in this area. However, we attach particular importance to action taken to help small businesses and will continue to explore further ways of doing so.