Small Business Service (Hansard, 30 June 1999)

§ Lord Simon of Highbury

The Government are planning to set up a Small Business Service with three main tasks: to act as a voice for small business at the heart of government; to simplify and improve the quality and coherence of government support for small businesses; to help small firms deal with regulation and ensure small firms' interests are properly considered in future regulation.

We want to ensure that opportunities for enterprise are open to all, and to create an environment where more entrepreneurs emerge and are successful.

The Small Business Service will be headed by a chief executive who will report to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and have direct access to Ministers across government. He or she will have a substantial and wide-ranging role, including:

a right to be consulted on all new government legislation presented to Parliament in Westminster that is likely to affect small businesses; and a right to be consulted on all new proposals for business support likely to affect small business in England;

representing the interests and concerns of small firms and ensuring they are taken into acount by government;

responsibility for ensuring that all government services directed primarily or mainly to small businesses are accessible through Small Business Service local outlets, thus taking forward the Business Link network;

responsibility for ensuring that the delivery of business support services reflects local priorities so that it is business-led and government-backed. In addition, local delivery arrangements will be shaped by the overall economic strategies developed by the Regional Development Agencies.

My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry is today launching a public consultation on the Small Business Service which includes a range of proposals in addition to the role and responsibilities of the chief executive.

One particular proposal is to set up the Small Business Service as a Next Steps Agency within the Department of Trade and Industry as from April 2000.

Other key proposals include:

creating an independent advisory body—the "Enterprise Council"—to advise the chief executive and report regularly to Ministers on matters of concern to small business;

making the Small Business Service responsible for managing the Government's Enterprise Fund;

making the Small Business Service responsible for providing practical help with payroll administration;

giving the Small Business Service responsibility for providing co-ordinated information for small firms on their regulatory obligations and for developing ways to work with regulators so as to ensure that they provide information and guidance material tailored to the needs of small businesses.

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Copies of the consultation document and a summary leaflet with the main proposals have been placed in the Library of the House. The Secretary of State is inviting comments on his proposals by 30 September.