Red-tape changes for small firms

Small businesses would be given a three-year moratorium on new regulation under a government plan to cut red tape and boost the economy.

In a speech on Friday, Mark Prisk, the business minister, is due to unveil changes aimed at lifting the regulatory burden coming from Whitehall.

This includes abolishing, at companies with fewer than 250 staff, workers’ rights to request leave for training.

Mr Prisk will speak at the Federation of Small Businesses annual conference.

Business Secretary Vince Cable was due to make the speech at the event in Liverpool, but has been called back to London for an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the crisis in Libya.

Mr Prisk will tell the conference: “We are giving those affected an opportunity to tell us which rules are badly designed, or straightforwardly a bad idea.”

There are also plans to revoke regulations giving parents of children up to the age 17 the right to flexible working hours.

Small and medium-sized businesses account for almost 60% of jobs in the UK and for half the country’s economic output.

The CBI employers’ group wants the coalition to go even further and, in a report on Friday, said that small firms should be given the right to an annual review of flexible working conditions.

The CBI also calls for firms to have the right to agree return dates for staff on maternity leave.

The Conservative-led coalition will present its Budget next week and, with unemployment rising, is under pressure to deliver a programme for economic growth.

The Budget is expected to focus on areas such as increasing levels of international trade, cutting red tape, changing planning rules and upgrading infrastructure.