In a speech to the Federation of Small Businesses in Liverpool today, Mark Prisk revealed the Government’s plans for measures that will allow businesses to grow.
They include a public audit of almost 22,000 statutory instruments that are currently on the statute book and a moratorium to exempt businesses with fewer than ten employees and genuine start-ups from new domestic regulation for three years.
For the public audit, the legislation will be grouped into themes on a dedicated website and businesses will be asked to tell the Government what they think of those regulations and how to improve the system.
This will help remove any overly burdensome or unnecessary regulation, unless Departments can prove there is a good reason for them.
The moratorium will be preceded by extensive engagement with businesses and other groups over the coming weeks to ensure that this is introduced in a way that does not have any unintended consequences for business.
Business Secretary Vince Cable said: “A moratorium for the smallest and genuine start-up companies from regulations alongside the removal of obligations for flexible working and giving time off to train will be a real boost to businesses. It will let them concentrate on growing their company, not thinking about dealing with the latest request from Government.
“It’s not right that businesses should have to deal with years of Government intervention by abiding by arcane rules. That’s why I am asking them to help us take a comprehensive look at the stock of regulation and tell us how rules and regulations affect them.”
Chairman of the Better Regulation Executive Sir Don Curry said: “For some time now, I have been pressing Government to recognise the burden regulation places on our small and micro-businesses. So, I am delighted that this exemption has been introduced. I would urge Government to continue to look at measures such as this to continue to help economic growth.”
