Post-Brexit Business - Red Tape Cut for the UK's Small to Medium-Sized Enterprises
On 2 October 2022, the Government announced a new drive to cut red tape for smaller and growing businesses by widening regulatory exemptions.
The Prime Minister has stated that, as part of plans to introduce a suite of policy reforms aimed at stimulating productivity and growth since the UK's departure from the EU, businesses with fewer than 500 employees will now be exempt from certain regulations. Previously, businesses were only presumed exempt from certain regulations if they had 50 employees or less.
The change threshold applies from Monday 3 October 2022 to all new regulations under development as well as those under current and future review, including retained EU laws. The Government is also considering future plans to consult on extending the threshold to businesses with a maximum of 1,000 employees, once the impact of the current change has been assessed.
The new exemptions are not blanket exemptions and may be overridden in appropriate circumstances where there is a justifiable reason for doing so in terms of the policy development process.
The Government's move is intended to help the UK's smaller and medium businesses by simplifying bureaucracy.
