Lord Young of Graffham, a former Minister in Mrs Thatcher’s Government, was recently appointed as Adviser to the Prime Minister on Enterprise, a new role set up to identify ways to boost the economy and ensure that the economic contribution that small and medium-sized businesses make and the issues they face are fully recognised by the Government.
Part of Lord Young’s remit is to remove barriers to growth faced by small and medium-sized firms and to find ways of minimising the regulatory and bureaucratic burdens they face.
One of the measures under consideration is increasing from one year to two the period for which an employee must work for an employer before acquiring the right to claim unfair dismissal. The qualifying period has been changed on several occasions in the past, the last time being in 1999, when it was reduced from two years to one year.
Lord Young will also review how government departments interact with and affect small and medium-sized businesses and consider how they can be given better procurement opportunities by central and local government.