§ 11. Mr. Stephen O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what recent representations she has received about business regulation affecting businesses in the North West economic region. [76429]
§ Alan JohnsonI meet regularly with business representative bodies such as the CBI, FSB and BCC to discuss issues, including regulations, that affect them.
The latest OECD report notes that,
Entrepreneurs face a better business and regulatory environment in the UK than in most other OECD countries. The Small Business Service (SBS) supports small and medium-sized companies and encourages an environment that fosters enterprise;The UK is at the forefront of regulatory reform in the OECD, it has already made major improvements and has planned more. Building on what it has already achieved, the UK now faces challenges as well as opportunities to confirm regulatory reform as a key driver of economic performance.
§ 26. Mr. ToddTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what recent representations she has received concerning the impact of fraud on small businesses, and if she will make a statement. [76446]
§ Nigel GriffithsAn interdepartmental group has been focusing on credit card fraud and my hon. Friend the Minister for Competition, Consumers and Markets looks forward to receiving their findings.
§ 27. Hugh RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans she has to alleviate the burden of regulation on small businesses; and if she will make a statement. [76447]
§ Nigel GriffithsSince January 2000, we have put in place a number of measures to reduce the burden of regulations on small businesses, including:
employers with four or fewer employees, exempted from requirement to provide access to stakeholder pensions and deduct pension contributions; increased the statutory audit threshold for companies from £350,000 to £1 million. This will relieve up to 150,000 small firms from the burden of a statutory audit, saving them up to £180 million a year; exempted small shops from the new EU unit pricing requirements; exempted employers with 20 or fewer employees from trade union recognition procedures in the Employment Relations Act. The Small Business Service has also: secured a 12-week period between regulations being agreed and implemented, allowing SMEs time to adapt to new regulations; secured the right to be consulted on all new regulations, so impact on SMEs is not disproportionate. Regulatory Impact Assessments (RIAs) have to be 964W produced for regulations setting out costs and benefits;produced clear guidance on a number of complex regulations; published the Regulatory Reform Action Plan—setting out over 250 proposals for better regulation and reform; regularly brought together groups of SMEs to express their views to officials, e.g. for Patrick Carter's review of payroll administration; set up an independent office to represent the views of small firms to the European institutions.
The Business Link Website is now attracting 80,000 users per month— businesses can register to receive alerts about regulations automatically. Further to these measures: around 900,000 SMEs benefit from measures announced in Budget 2002, including 485,000 businesses whose corporation tax bill is cut or abolished, and 700,000 are benefiting from flat rate VAT scheme; regulatory challenge function within the DTI strengthened. A new team created to consider how we challenge existing and future legislation and to ensure all policy makers fully consider alternatives to regulation at the outset of the policy-making process. The UK is not over-regulated compared to other countries: A survey jointly published by Anderson and GrowthPlus benchmarks the business environment in nine EU countries, plus the USA. In this report the UK comes out in first place, for providing the most entrepreneur-friendly environment scoring consistently high in all measured categories.
The Economist Intelligence Unit (E.I.U.) studied the business environment, including regulation, in 60 countries. Results published in the Economist in August 2001, showed the Netherlands, the USA and Britain in the top three places. Recent OECD report into UK regulation concluded the environment is particularly supportive of market openness and competition. The report noted British entrepreneurs face better business and regulatory conditions than in most other OECD economies, it also highlighted support that SBS gives to SMEs and its role in fostering an enterprise culture in the UK.