Businesses and the Regions

Yes. We receive great advice from many sources about simplifying the tax system, and we should listen closely to it. There are gains to be made in relation to the detail of complying with our tax systems and, yes, there is progress to be made on that. I should like to make a plea regarding our decisions on which regulations we no longer want. The most recent survey by the Forum of Private Business—which was recently reported to us, as legislators—asked its members to identify the most significant barriers to their businesses. The No. 1 barrier was health and safety regulation. Personally, I think there are great benefits to be derived from health and safety regulation for the safety of the businesses, their work forces and their consumers. Back in July, the Public Accounts Committee cited a telling statistic that should make this country proud of its health and safety record, which is the best in Europe: in 1974, 1,000 people died in their place of work in this country; in 2006, the figure was 250. We should not throw out with the bathwater the baby that is the reason why we have regulation in the first place. There are benefits, and we must not lose sight of them. A long-term, and perhaps rather techie, point from a legislator such as myself is that it is quite difficult for any business, but particularly small businesses these days, to follow the laws that Parliament has said they must abide by. We are constantly amending primary legislation, and passing secondary legislation that amends other secondary legislation. This is often difficult to follow. My solution would be to have very general primary legislation that permits things to be done through a secondary legislation system. A lot of the law that results from that should be codified. We should have up-to-date codes to which people can have access, so that they can find out everything they need to know about their subject. That is my long-term desire, and I hope we can achieve it one day. I want to say a bit more about our global competitiveness and the taxation system. We need to be globally competitive through the tax rates that we charge in this country, compared with others. It is important for us, as legislators and tax raisers, to raise our eyes beyond the borders of our own country and be aware of the changes taking place in other parts of the world, to ensure that we remain competitive to the people who make simple decisions to move their investments from one place to another in this globally competitive world. On the big subject of Britain in the global market, I would like to praise the workers and managers of JCB for their recent decision to work a four-day week to protect a larger number of the work force from redundancy. Perhaps some Opposition Members are not too keen on the involvement of trade unions in workplace negotiations, but I want to praise the GMB, in particular, for effectively brokering that deal and persuading the work force to vote for it.