Red Tape woes for SMEs

The Forum of Private Business (FPB) is welcoming apparent moves to reduce red tape for micro-businesses (i.e. those with fewer than 10 employees) according to the Retail Bulletin and they add that Brian Binley MP, a Conservative member whose name has appeared on this blog recently was the first Member of Parliament to sign the "Think Small First" pledge in the house. The idea behind the campaign initiated by the FPB in March is to get all forms of Government that affect our smallest businesses to think about the time that it takes to complete the forms that are associated with many new bits of regulation; the FPB claim, and I have no reason to disbelieve them, that Governmental organisations regularly underestimate the time that it takes to make the statutory returns that are imposed via law and regulation.

It does not take a genius to realise that if you apply a one-size fits all approach to gathering information then it must have the greatest effect in terms of proportion of management and staff time on those with the smallest work-force. I say that the FPB is absolutely right in their campaign and well done to Brian Binley for taking the lead in the House of Commons - now all that needs to happen is for this enthusiasm to be reflected in a dramatically reduced amount of red tape to micro-businesses.