Derbyshire Businesses Have Their Say On Red Tape

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A new survey of Derbyshire businesses by the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Chamber of Commerce found that 21% of local firms thought that Health and Safety legislation had the biggest impact on their business, followed by general employment laws and business taxation.

When asked which one specific law firms would most like to see scrapped, the most popular answers were the country’s over-prescriptive Health and Safety regime, the employee dismissals process and statutory maternity/paternity leave for new parents.

The Chamber carried out the consultation with its members in Derbyshire in response to the launch of the coalition government’s Your Freedom campaign. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg launched the initiative last month, with the aim of giving the general public the chance to identify which laws, rules and regulations they would most like to see scrapped.

The survey also found that two-thirds of local firms 65% felt that UK legislation had a bigger impact on their business than EU regulations.

The cost of compliance was also an issue, with firms spending around £46,000 on average each year on ensuring their business complies with the rules and regulations governing their sector, ranging from sole traders paying as little as £50, to one local business, which reported that it had an annual compliance spend of £150,000.

And around 15% of Derbyshire companies say their staff spend between 10-20 hours every week on compliance administration.

The Chamber will present the findings of the survey to government to ensure that the voice of Derbyshire business is heard.

It is also working with the Better Local Regulation Office on an ongoing campaign to bring employers and regulators together to give a better understanding of businesses are run and the challenges they can face in abiding by the rules.

George Cowcher, the Chamber’s chief executive, said: “Every year, businesses are having to deal with more and more regulation and business owners constantly tell me that a lot of it is superfluous or unnecessary.

The findings of this survey have identified a number of key areas of legislation that the Chamber’s members feel should be reviewed and we will be presenting the results to government in due course.

“Government has got a real opportunity here to create a more flexible and less burdensome trading environment by repealing regulations where it’s clear the costs outweigh the benefits to the economy and by avoiding the introduction of further regulations which place unnecessary financial strain on businesses.

And with the current pressing need to reduce the UK’s unsustainable deficit, government will also benefit by wasting less money on the administrative costs of bureaucracy. ”

LBRO Chairman Clive Grace added: “We work closely with all the major business organisations, and the Chamber’s findings echo our own survey of business.

“It is our responsibility to make the system of local regulation work better, and we value this partnership with business in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire as a way of achieving our goal.”