The government has opened a consultation around reducing paperwork for SMEs. Here are the headline proposals and how to get involved

The proposals include:

• Simplifying which businesses need to adhere to which reporting rules, and testing the merits of non-financial reporting requirements for private companies
• Exempting more businesses from audits, including medium-sized businesses
• Making the UK’s reporting rules clearer and more coherent
• Replacing the complex rules on distributable profits and capital maintenance with a solvency-based regime
• Making electronic communications to shareholders the default

All of this will save more than £450 million per year, according to estimates.

Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said:

“No-one goes into business to fill out forms. For years, hardworking firms in this country have been weighed down by pen-pushing paperwork and frustrating costs, ticking boxes that do nothing to help them grow their business.

“We’re stripping back outdated bureaucracy and building a common-sense system fit for a 21st-century economy. This will cut the cost of doing business, giving breathing room to bosses across the country, and free them up to focus on what they do best, creating jobs and growth.”

The process for scrapping director’s reports is already underway, as are plans to make more businesses exempt from providing strategic reports.

Small businesses have cumbersome reporting rules and paperwork already. These add weight to their many day-to-day tasks and drain them of thousands of pounds – and countless hours. It will be interesting to see what effect this has on recent reporting changes, such as small firms needing to report profit and loss from 2028.

In the meantime, you can take part in the consultation. It opened on September 7, 2026 and will close at 23:59 on November 30, 2026.