Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015

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Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015
Act of Parliament
Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (variant 1, 1952-2022).svg
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title An Act to make provision about improved access to finance for businesses and individuals; to make provision about regulatory provisions relating to business and certain voluntary and community bodies; to make provision about the exercise of procurement functions by certain public authorities; to make provision for the creation of a Pubs Code and Adjudicator for the regulation of dealings by pub-owning businesses with their tied pub tenants; to make provision about the regulation of the provision of childcare; to make provision about information relating to the evaluation of education; to make provision about the regulation of companies; to make provision about company filing requirements; to make provision about the disqualification from appointments relating to companies; to make provision about insolvency; to make provision about the law relating to employment; and for connected purposes.
Citation 2015 c. 26
Territorial extent United Kingdom
Dates
Royal assent 26 March 2015
Status: Amended
Text of statute as originally enacted
Text of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk.

The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015, also referred to as SBEE, [1] received Royal Assent in March 2015. [2] Its contents include regulatory reform (part 2), public sector procurement (part 3) and company director disqualification issues (part 9). Its passage reflected a commitment in the Queen's Speech on 4 June 2014 to introduce legislation which would

Contents

help [to] make the United Kingdom the most attractive place to start, finance and grow a business. The bill will support small businesses by cutting bureaucracy and enabling them to access finance. [3]

Provisions

Access to finance

The provisions mentioned in the long title regarding "improved access to finance for businesses and individuals" are incorporated in Part 1 of the Act. This part includes provision for regulatory control over contract clauses which "prohibit or impose a condition, or other restriction, on the assignment (or, in Scotland, assignation) by a party to the contract of the right to be paid any amount under the contract or any other contract between the parties". [4]

Business impact target

Part 2 contained provision for the government to publish a "business impact target", which is

a target for the Government in respect of the economic impact on business activities of qualifying regulatory provisions. [5]

Statutory guidance on this duty was published in January 2019. [6]

The relevant legislative provisions, namely sections 21 to 27 of the 2015 Act, were repealed, and the business impact target itself was abolished by the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023. [7]

Public sector procurement

Part 3 concerns powers to make further regulations regarding public sector procurement, including processes for entering into contracts and contract management (section 39) and investigations into procurement functions (section 40). One of the particular objectives underlying potential regulations would be to ensure that procurement functions are exercised in an efficient and timely manner. [8] These sections were repealed by the Procurement Act 2023, although investigatory powers remain in place under Part 10 of the new procurement legislation. [9]

Examples of public sector purchasing practices identified in a Cabinet Office consultation regarding the proposed legislation in 2014, before it was enacted, included over-complicating requirements and 'gold-plating' specifications, being over-prescriptive for lower value procurements, complex tender documentation, and making inappropriate use of framework agreements when they can be a barrier for small businesses, and internal decision making procedures. [10]

Company directors

On 1 October 2015, Part 9 of the Act came into force, [11] which amended the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 to introduce:

  • inclusion of relevant foreign offences as grounds for disqualification (s. 104)
  • extension of the régime to persons instructing unfit directors of insolvent companies (s. 105)
  • revision of the procedure for determining the unfitness of directors and shadow directors (s. 106)
  • requirements for official receivers, liquidators, administrators and administrative receivers to report to the Secretary of State on the conduct of each person who was a director of a company on the insolvency date or within the three years before (s. 107)
  • provision for compensation orders and undertakings on persons who are subject to disqualification orders or undertakings, where the person's conduct as a director caused loss to one or more creditors during the time he was a director of an insolvent company (s. 110)

Reporting on Payment Practices and Performance Regulations 2017

The Reporting on Payment Practices and Performance Regulations 2017, issued under the Act, came into force on 6 April 2017. [12] Under these rules, all large UK companies are required to publish specific information regarding their payment policies, practices and performance, including the average time taken to pay supplier invoices, twice yearly. This information is made public in a report. [13] The regulations lapsed on 6 April 2024. [12] : Regulation 1(3) 

See also

References

  1. ↑ UK Government, Small Business, Enterprise and Employment (SBEE) Act, published 25 June 2014, accessed 2 July 2021
  2. ↑ "Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015", legislation.gov.uk , The National Archives, 2015 c. 26
  3. ↑ Cabinet Office, Queens Speech 2014, accessed on 12 October 2025
  4. ↑ UK Legislation, Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015, section 1, accessed on 26 October 2025
  5. ↑ Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015, section 21, accessed 5 February 2023
  6. ↑ Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, Business Impact Target Statutory Guidance, published January 2019, accessed 5 February 2023
  7. ↑ "Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023: Section 18", legislation.gov.uk , The National Archives, 29 June 2023, 2023 c. 28 (s. 18), retrieved 1 September 2023
  8. ↑ UK Legislation, Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015, section 39(5)(a)
  9. ↑ UK Legislation, Procurement Act 2023, Part 10 and Schedule 11, accessed 8 January 2024
  10. ↑ Cabinet Office, Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill. Reforms to public procurement – analysis of responses to consultation: Question 3, accessed 29 August 2021
  11. ↑ "The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 (Commencement No. 2 and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2015", legislation.gov.uk , The National Archives, SI 2015/1689
  12. 1 2 "The Reporting on Payment Practices and Performance Regulations 2017".
  13. ↑ "Export data for published reports".
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