Government will not push through plans to make sackings easier, says Sajid Javid

The Tories had been expected to relax employment laws

Sajid Javid said ‘all sorts of issues’ would be looked at (Getty)

The Government will not revisit plans to make it easier for businesses to sack employees, Sajid Javid, the new Business Secretary, has indicated.

The Conservatives had been expected to push ahead with plans for a major relaxation of employment laws, including controversial proposals that would allow firms to dismiss anyone without giving a reason, provided they paid compensation. The idea had been contained in a report from the businessman Adrian Beecroft, but was vetoed by the Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Government.

Asked if he was planning to use the forthcoming Enterprise Bill to return to some of the Beecroft ideas – including no-fault dismissals for small companies – Mr Javid told The Andrew Marr Show they would not be resurrected.

“No, I won’t be looking at that again,” he said. “What we will be doing, though, is looking at deregulation, taking it even further. During the last parliament we have saved businesses from about £10bn of costs collectively in regulation and I think we can do at least that again.

“I set out some of the examples in a speech I made recently about the kind of things that we can do in reducing red tape – I want to build on those.”

Pressed again about revisiting the Beecroft proposals, Mr Javid said “all sorts of issues” will be looked at, with businesses and others asked to bring forward ideas on deregulation. “I also want to take a look at regulators, to see if they can be made part of a system to help cut regulation on businesses,” he said.

“We will start setting out more information in the Queen’s Speech but over the coming months I think there will be a lot more detail.”