Small businesses
This page highlights some of the current parliamentary material available on small businesses. This includes select committee reports, briefing papers on current legislation and other subjects produced by the parliamentary research services, and the latest Early Day Motions put down by MPs.
Standard Notes
| Date | Description |
|---|---|
| 10.06.2013 | Public procurement: small businesses and savings |
| This note briefly sets out the European and domestic public procurement rules before summarising Government efforts to use its procurement spend to support small businesses. It also sets out recent reforms to procurement processes which have aimed to drive down costs by centralising contracts with major government suppliers. | |
| 14.05.2013 | Late Payment of debts |
| This note provides a history of the UK's legislation on late payment of debts. | |
| 12.04.2013 | Business statistics |
| This note includes information on the number of businesses since 2001, small businesses, business by region, businesses by industry business births and deaths and information on female representation in business. It also features some discussion of the sources of business statistics and their coverage. | |
| 19.12.2012 | Small businesses and the UK economy |
| This note presents a statistical analysis of small businesses in the UK and information on small businesses government policy. | |
| 23.11.2012 | Businesses by constituency |
| This note provides some key statistics on businesses by parliamentary constituency. It includes a full constituency list showing the change between 2010 and 2012 and information on on businesses by industrial sector. |
Research Papers
| Date | Description |
|---|---|
| 03.03.2009 | Small Business Rate Relief (Automatic Payment) Bill (Bill 13 of 2008-09) |
| The purpose of this Bill is to make the payment of rate relief for small businesses in England automatic. Currently, businesses have to apply to their billing authority once within each revaluation period (five years) to receive the relief during this period. | |
| 25.11.2008 | Small Business, Insolvency and Redundancy |
| HC Research Paper 08/87 Small Business, Insolvency and Redundancy | |
| 08.07.2008 | Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [HL] Committee Stage Report |
| 16.05.2008 | Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [HL] 2007-08 |
| Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill (HL) 2007-08. (Bill 103 of 2007-08). House of Commons Library Research Paper 08/46. | |
| 28.06.2004 | Small firms: Red Tape |
| Small firms: red tape. House of Commons Research Paper 04/52. |
Select Committee Reports
| Date | Description |
|---|---|
| 15.02.2011 | The new local enterprise partnerships. |
| Government response. Department for Business, Innovation and Skills; Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee report [Commons] | |
| 19.11.2010 | The new local enterprise partnerships. |
| Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee report [Commons] | |
| 30.03.2010 | Market Failure? |
| Communities and Local Government Select Committee report [Commons] | |
| 01.03.2010 | The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills: Venture capital support to small businesses. |
| Public Accounts Committee report [Commons] | |
| 12.10.2009 | Market failure?: can the traditional market survive? Government response to the Communities and Local... |
| Government response. Communities and Local Government report [Commons] |
Early Day Motions
| Date | Description |
|---|---|
| 01.03.2011 | JOB CREATION IN SMALL BUSINESS |
| That this House remains concerned at the high level of unemployment, currently at 2.5 million; notes research from the Federation of Small Businesses which shows that 44 per cent. of ... | |
| 01.03.2011 | EXPORTS AND GROWTH |
| That this House recognises that the Government has hailed exporting as a potential driver for economic growth; further recognises that exporting offers huge potential for small businesses ... | |
| 01.03.2011 | ACCESS TO FINANCE FOR SMALL BUSINESSES |
| That this House expresses concern at recent findings from the Federation of Small Businesses that show around 84 per cent. of small businesses are not approaching the banks for credit ... | |
| 01.03.2011 | KEEP TRADE LOCAL CAMPAIGN |
| That this House recognises that small businesses are not just part of the local community, but are the local community; further recognises that the UK economy is driven by small businesses; ... | |
| 01.03.2011 | TOURISM AND SMALL BUSINESSES |
| That this House recognises that the UK's tourism industry contributed over 115 billion to the UK economy in 2009; notes that the Federation of Small Businesses has recently released ... |
Lords Library Notes
| Date | Description |
|---|---|
| 12.07.2013 | Debate on 18 July: Role of Government in Generating Economic Prosperity and Employment |
| This Note outlines recent data on the performance of the UK economy, announcements by the Government for capital spending, spending on research and development and action to help businesses gain access to funding. It also looks at proposals for the Government to take more of a role in managing growth, in particular whether the UK needs a more coherent and long-term industrial strategy. | |
| 19.04.2012 | Sunday Trading (London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games) Bill [HL] (HL Bill 139 of 2010-12) |
| This Library Note provides background information on the Sunday Trading (London Olympic and Paralympic Games) Bill due to have its second reading in the House of Lords on 24 April 2012. |
