Queen's Speech shows 'poverty of ambition' on red tape, says IoD business group Under new laws, ministers are waiving the first £2,000 of National Insurance for all employers to reduce the cost of taking on new staff. This will mean around 450,000 - or a third - of all employers will no longer have to pay any of the employment tax at all. However, Simon Walker, director-general of the Institute, said the Queen's Speech is a "missed opportunity" that does not go far enough in terms of scrapping burdensome rules. Phil Orford, chief executive of the Federation of Small Businesses, also complained that ministers are bringing in new regulations at the same time as scrapping old ones. "There is much made of a deregulatory bill but if the Government really wants to deregulate it needs to stop unnecessary regulations in the first place, a cause not helped by plans for immigration checks to be placed squarely on the shoulders of small business," he said.