WHEN East Lancashire engineering firm Glassfibre Developments Ltd recently went into administration, it blamed the impact of health and safety and employment law for its demise.

Reporter ANDREW HEWITT investigates the impact Government legislation is having on businesses

in the area.

MORE than 30 reports, seven white papers and two acts of Parliament have all been drafted to tackle red tape in the past 20 years.

But they are just a few of the hundreds of attempts to free up business from ever-constricting rules and regulations, according to Rob Baldwin, a professor at the London School of Economics.

But it will offer little comfort to the 100-plus employees of Glassfibre Developments Ltd, Nelson, who lost their jobs last month when the Walverden Park firm went into receivership.

The manufacturer, whose customers included JCB, blamed the increasing cost of health and safety and employment law for ending a 40-year presence in Pendle.

And according to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), red tape is costing companies £15million each year.

The FSB, Britain's biggest business organisation, felt so strongly about the impact legislation had on firms that it recently identified the issue as a key battleground for the general election -- warning only radical action would convince people politicians were serious about tackling the issue.

In recent years, businesses have had to contend with the introduction of a number of laws such as late payment laws and flexible working hours, as well as changes to maternity and paternity leave and the minimum wage.

Peter Abbott, managing director of Veka, one of Burnley's biggest manufacturers with a workforce of over 300, said red tape had a major influence on the company.

He explained that because the Rossendale Road firm is heavily regulated by health and safety laws, their human resources department had increased from two to eight in the last few years and employed a full-time health and safety officer.

We have a great deal more requirement now than we did, say, seven years ago and we have to do a tremendous amount more in terms of red tape.

"We have to keep on top of all the legislation we are responsible for and spend a fortune on training.

Recently our entire workforce had to be put through discrimination training, which was expensive," he said.

And it is not just large businesses that have been affected. The FSB said it costs five times more and takes five times longer for small businesses to implement new laws.

The organisation cautiously welcomed a decision in Gordon Brown's recent pre-election budget that a review of red tape would be investigated in The Better Regulation Taskforce report.

An FSB spokesman said: "Businesses have been promised bonfires of red tape in the past and they have never been ignited.

"But whether or not the report will result in fundamental change and a red tape revolution awaits to be seen.

"Businesses are cynical because of past broken promises -- 30 reports, seven white papers and two acts of parliament in the last 20 years alone."

George Heys, owner of Heys Butchers, Lyndhurst Road, Burnley, and president of the Burnley and Pendle Butchers' Association, employs four people.

He said he was bogged down with a lot of paperwork, particularly for the Inland Revenue, but added that the hazard analysis critical control points regulations, which tracks where food has come from to ensure high standards, was excellent.

"On top of all the paperwork, which we have to keep on top of, we have to try keep our business going.

"It should be the other way round. We are fastly becoming a nation of paperworkers, not a nation of shopkeepers," he said.

Peter Byrne, head of Forbes Solicitors Employment Law Unit in Blackburn, said legislation did impact on companies, many of which have had to form human resources departments and training programmes.

He added much of the recent legislation imposed was aimed at ensuring disciplinary procedures are correctly followed to protect all parties and many businesses contact the firm for advice.

Mr Byrne said: "They do have a cost implication but this is across the board and it will affect the businesses and their competitors.

"We regularly upgrade contracts and some companies tend to be pro-active to solve problems before they happen.

"Employment law is changing every month and it can be expensive to keep on top of it. It is one of the fastest changing laws in any field."