Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are being treated unfairly when it comes to complying with red tape, according to one expert.
A spokesman for the Institute of Directors (IoD) said this week that SMEs can find themselves inconvenienced by levels of government regulation because they do not have the same facilities as larger firms.
Alexander Ehmann, head of regulation and enterprise policy at the IoD, said that in particular sole-traders could be being discriminated against.
"A sole-trader particularly will have a comparatively higher workload individually on regulation than a 500-strong company," he said.
He added that this would undoubtedly affect UK business' growth agenda and that although the burden of regulation does fall on the entrepreneur they should not be penalised for it.
"The real burden seems to come in around employment issues and taking on that first employee."
A recent survey by the IoD titled The SME Glass Ceiling: Growth Obstacles in 2007 found that 42 per cent of SMEs said regulation was holding back business.
