Osborne unveils further reforms

George Osborne has announced further initiatives to cut the burden of health and safety regulations for small businesses, following on from proposals earlier in the week on reducing the red tape involved in personal injury claims.

The Chancellor said this was one of the ways to help make such firms competitive, while outlining a series of other reforms in relation to employment law -including regulations covering the pay and conditions of workers when they switch from the public to the private sector.

Addressing MPs in his Autumn Statement, he said that he wants to make it easier for firms to recruit people and is now looking at how Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (Tupe) could be best reformed.

He said one of the issues that dissuaded small firms from hiring people was the fear of incurring huge contests if taken to an employment tribunal.

He said was exploring the ideas of "compensated no-fault dismissal" for firms with less than 10 workers and speeding up collective redundancy.

He said: "This Government has introduced flexible working practices and we are committed to fair rights for employees. But what about the right to get a job in the first place?

"Or the right to work all hours running a small business and not be sued out of existence by the costs of an employment tribunal?"

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