In a bid to encourage the government to learn lessons from the regulatory response to Covid, the Federation of Small Businesses, together with Newcastle University and the University of Birmingham published a report earlier this week, entitled "Navigating the COVID-19 Regulatory Landscape". Although the report focuses on Covid regulations, its recommendations cover regulation in a broader sense, suggesting that the difference between optional and required actions be made clearer, that grace periods be introduced to allow businesses more time to implement any required changes and that guidance documentation be simplified and shortened.

Although the report finds that, for some small businesses, the required changes actually benefitted them in the long-run and that certain innovations are being maintained by them going forward, the point remains that small businesses are a different breed to their larger cousins. Regulation can, after all, be a minefield for even the most experienced of compliance managers and for small businesses, it can be a death knell. Consider their financial resources, the man power available to them and often, the qualifications and experience within the business of dealing with red tape. 

That said, larger businesses do not necessarily have it any easier. Small businesses may fall outside the scope of certain regulations or have simplified procedures; look at the accounting rules for example. With more employees, (often) a greater online presence and more customers (and the list could go on), larger businesses have their own regulatory hoops to jump through and will often have to employ their own compliance team just to keep on top of it all. 

In the field of regulation, there is no one size fits all and indeed maybe less could actually be more?