Small Business, Enterprise And Employment Bill Good For SMEs

According to Business Minister Matthew Hancock, the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill, which was introduced to Parliament this week, contains 142 clauses designed to help small firms “start, grow and thrive”.

Amongst the measures introduced in the Bill are the rules that will force future governments to cut down on the burden of red tape, as well as one to tackle the estimated £30bn that is owed to small companies in outstanding bills.

It hopes to achieve this by attempting to shame firms into paying their suppliers on time by forcing them to publish information about their payment terms.

In addition, the Bill will ban exclusivity clauses for zero-hours contracts, which prevent people from working for someone else, even when no work is guaranteed, in a bid to clamp down on less scrupulous employers.

Legislation in the Bill also includes a publicly available register of beneficial ownership to increase transparency about who owns and controls UK firms, which means that owners of companies will no longer be able to use ownership registers to hide their real identities.

Business groups including the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) and the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) have welcomed the Bill, with the FSB calling it a “landmark” for small firms.

As far as the FSB is concerned, the prompt payment code and forcing larger firms to publish their payment terms are two of the best gifts for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), while a spokesman for the BCC described most of the measures as “small and sensible”.

However, some critics are concerned that the Bill may be serving as a distraction to the fact that a number of initiatives aimed at SMEs have been significantly reduced over the past few months, despite the Government’s promise to reach £1tr in exports by 2020.