Regulation on small businesses must be reduced

12.20.28pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 19th Sep 2006

The Liberal Democrats today passed a motion at Party Conference in Brighton aimed at reducing the burden of regulation on small business. 592 new rules and regulations have been introduced since 1997, and together with the additional administration requirements, the cost to business is estimated to be £50bn.

The motion also proposes merging the various business inspection agencies into one over-arching Small Business Inspectorate.

Shepway Liberal Democrat and business owner Darren Briddock welcomed the debate and outcome. He said:

"As a company owner, there are seemingly millions of regulations and rules to comply with - and some of them petty or pointless. It is high time the Government stopped weighing down business with new rules and started repealing old ones.

"We must reverse the increasing tendency to require companies to act as unpaid Government civil servants."