Enterprise Bill (HL Bill 63 of 2015–16)
This Library Note has been prepared to provide briefing material ahead of the Enterprise Bill’s second reading in the House of Lords on 12 October 2015.
The Enterprise Bill is wide ranging. It includes proposals to establish a Small Business Commissioner, to assist in payment disputes and signpost advice services for small businesses; extend the Business Impact Target to include regulators, requiring them to assess the impact to business of their practices, and modify the way in which regulators engage with the Growth Duty and Regulators’ Code; extend the Primary Authority Scheme; introduce a target for the total number of apprentices working in public sector bodies, and protect the term ‘apprenticeship’; introduce new measures intended to prevent the late payment of insurance claims to businesses; allow the Valuation Office Agency to share business rates information about properties and ratepayers with local government; reform the Business Rates Appeals system; update the Industrial Development Act 1982; and introduce a cap on ‘exit payments’ for public sector workers.