One of the enjoyable things about running a business information service is that you never know what is coming next.

One minute you can be answering a question about the market share of Coca Cola versus Pepsi; the next it can be tracking down suppliers of printed circuit boards. It is this variety that keeps us on our toes.

However, one question that we often get asked is "What does the law say about...?" The regulatory framework affects every business, and it is important that managers keep on top of what the law requires them to do.

At Business Link we have recently been asked for information on the Working Time Directive, salaries and contracts of employment, and product labelling, just to name a few.

So is there any way that individual people in business can keep up with this sort of information for themselves?

The short answer is yes. Obviously it depends on how much detail you need, and whether or not you have a specific problem in mind, but one source of information is the information leaflets produced by the regulatory bodies themselves.

The DTI are particularly good at publishing these. They produce a whole range on many of the basic regulations which are of concern to many companies in our area.

These can be obtained in printed form from DTI, or downloaded from their website if you have an Internet connection.

One series covers employment rights, and includes such topics as disability discrimination, redundancy, trade union membership and maternity rights. Another series focuses on employment legislation and includes factsheets on contracts of employment, fair and unfair dismissal, or time off for public duties. These factsheets are usually two or three pages long and set out clearly and concisely the basic facts about each particular piece of legislation and how it applies in the workplace.

With this sort of information readily obtainable, it should be easy for small firms to avoid the problems which can result from ignoring the legislation and hoping that ignorance will be an acceptable excuse.

Paul Twiddy is information manager at Business Link, Bradford & District.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.