§ Mr. PageTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, pursuant to his answer of 30 October 2000,Official Report, column 228W, on deregulation, what progress his Department has made in identifying the statement referred to and the evidence on which it is based. [138409]
595W
§ Ms HewittThe statement to which I now understand this and the previous question refers is that "Government continues to reduce the burdens caused by too much regulation." It appears in two publications published by the Small Business Service—"Setting up in Business: A Guide to Regulatory Requirements" and "Employing Staff: A Guide to Regulatory Requirements." It also appears on the Small Business Service website.
There is considerable evidence for the statement. For example, the Government have increased the threshold below which small companies may opt to dispense with having their annual accounts audited from a turnover of £350,000 to a turnover of £1,000,000. This measure alone will produce annual savings of around £90 million for about 75,000 companies. In addition, the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his pre-budget statement has proposed a major overhaul of the VAT system to reduce the administrative burden on small firms. The Federation of Small Businesses said it was
… delighted with the proposals outlined by the Chancellor on VAT, saying reforms would provide greater simplicity and ease cash flow problems for small firms.A number of other measures to reduce burdens are in the pipeline, including reform of the liquor licensing and gambling laws. Further evidence for the statement is the report by the OECD last year that the UK had the lowest level of product market regulation while the CBI has reported that the UK has more flexible labour market regulation than other European countries.