Supplementary memorandum submitted by
the Federation of Small Businesses
Further to the oral evidence we gave on Tuesday
20 August to the above named inquiry, the Federation of Small
Businesses (FSB) welcomes the opportunity to provide supplementary
evidence as requested and to make a small correction to the draft
evidence transcript.
The FSB is the UK's leading business organisation.
It exists to protect and promote the interests of the self-employed
and all those who run their own business. The FSB is non-party
political, and with 213,000 members, it is also the largest organisation
representing micro and small sized businesses in the UK.
Small businesses make up 99.3% of all businesses
in the UK, and make a huge contribution to the UK economy. They
contribute 51% of the GDP and employ 58% of the private sector
workforce.
SUPPLEMENTARY EVIDENCE
During the hearing, I agreed to provide further
insight on a proposed auction system where there are certificates
of sponsorship and if businesses want to bring into the UK a non-EU
employee they can bid against those. The FSB is of the view that
this is an overly simplistic solution which will act as a significant
barrier to growth to small business owners looking to expand their
business. Instead of ploughing profits back into businesses, rewarding
employees for their hard work and playing their part in a vibrant
economic recovery, small business owners would be paying money
to Government in order to employ those staff who have the skills
which the UK education system has failed to deliver.
EVIDENCE CORRECTION
In my response to question seven I said that
we had raised the issue in our 2010 election manifesto, which
was published towards the end of 2009. On a detailed reading of
our manifesto this is not the case, but I would like to stress
that the FSB has always played its part in the ongoing debate
and that we will continue to do so. As we have repeatedly stated
the introduction of any form of cap on Tier One and Tier Two migrants
would have a significant impact on small businesses.
July 2010
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