The demands of regulatory paperwork cost directors £37bn a year

The time company directors spend doing paperwork related to regulatory compliance has gone up from 13 hours a month in 2009 to 17 hours a month in 2010, says the the Institute of Directors (IoD),

In a new report by the IoD, a typical director would have to work continuously from 1 January until 9 February to complete their annual administrative burden.

The business group says:
“Despite some positive noises on regulatory reform, the Government has yet to deliver any meaningful deregulation.”

It says it reached the figures by looking at the cost of working hours spent on regulatory compliance. The IoD’s research found that on average directors spend 17 hours a month on the paperwork associated with government regulation. It found that the monetary cost of directors undertaking these 17 hours, when annualised across the number of private enterprises in the UK, was £36.8bn in 2010, up from £28.2bn in 2009.

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Commenting on the report, Miles Templeman, Director-General of the IoD, said:

“Instead of building up their businesses and creating new jobs, the UK’s entrepreneurs are spending over a month each year handling Government red tape. Some of this burden has to be lifted if we want the private sector to grow and create jobs to offset redundancies in the public sector.

“Significant deregulation of employment law must be on the agenda. We know this is contentious, but we’ve reached a point where excessive red tape is stopping many micro-businesses from taking on their first employee. This doesn’t benefit anyone.”