Government Policy for SMEs:Do Regulators “Think Small First”?

U.K. guidelines on the introduction of new regulations require that politicians and civil servants should “think small first” when deciding whether and how to introduce new regulations that affect business. Similar guidelines are currently being adopted across the EU. This paper presents the findings of a study of the effectiveness of the UK Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) system and the extent to which the effects of regulations on small firms are taken into account. The study was conducted for the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) between June and December 2002....