Emma Jones starts role as Small Business Commissioner

New Small Business Commissioner Emma Jones will lead on accelerating payment times and access to support for small businesses.

• Experienced business advocate and former founder Emma Jones starts her new role to focus on tackling late and unfair payment practices
• Emma brings to the role previous experience of building public and private sector partnerships to boost capability amongst small firms and ensuring SMEs are fit to supply larger companies
• Emma will champion small businesses and seeks to leverage digital technologies to speed up payment and boost growth

Following her appointment as Small Business Commissioner, today (23 June) Emma Jones starts in the role with a commitment to champion small business. Late payments and unfair payment practices impact the health and performance of 5.5 million UK businesses sustaining 13 million jobs, the new Small Business Commissioner has a key role in supporting their growth and championing their success.

Small Business Commissioner Emma Jones said:

“Having done it myself, I know the commitment it takes to start and grow a successful business. Small firms tell me they are time poor and spending too many precious hours on non productive work like chasing debt. This is limiting their capacity to focus on growth and we want to change that.

Through the Office of the Small Business Commissioner (OSBC), we will make life easier for small business owners by leveraging technology to speed up payments and offering relevant support.

This work will be delivered in partnership at all levels of government and with industry partners who have a critical role to play in freeing up time and money for this country’s amazing base of small businesses.

We will celebrate good business through the Fair Payment Code and continue to challenge companies that pay late and engage in unfair practices. 

The vision is to enable small businesses to focus on what they do best and retain the UK’s status as a great place to start and grow a business.”

Small Business Minister Gareth Thomas said:

“I’m delighted that in Emma Jones’s appointment, we have someone who has long championed small firms and entrepreneurs right across the UK. I am confident that her passion and expertise will ensure small firms have a powerful advocate fighting in their corner.

“As part of our Plan for Change, I’m determined to make the UK the world’s best place to be an SME, tackling late payments, improving access to finance and getting more small firms exporting around the world – and today’s appointment is a crucial part of that process.”

About Emma Jones

Following a degree in Law and Japanese, Emma joined international accounting firm Arthur Andersen, where she worked in London, Leeds and Manchester offices and set up the firm’s Inward Investment practice that attracted overseas companies to locate in the UK.

In 2000, bitten by the dot.com bug, Emma left the firm to start her first business, Techlocate. After 15 months, the company was successfully sold to Tenon plc when Emma was 27. The experience of starting, growing and selling a business from a home base gave Emma the idea for Enterprise Nation which was launched in 2005 to support the flourishing number of start-ups and SMEs.

Enterprise Nation expanded to become an active small business membership community, reaching more than 800,000 businesses each year with its powerful digital business support platform. Whilst leading Enterprise Nation, Emma presented a positive campaigning voice to government and the media on behalf of partners and members.

In 2011, Emma co-founded enterprise campaign, StartUp Britain, that she ran until 2014. During that time, StartUp Britain facilitated mentoring, hosted Industry Weeks, toured the UK with entrepreneurs and experts, launched special projects such as PopUp Britain and had a critical role to play in record results of people becoming their own boss.

Emma served as SME Representative for Crown Commercial Service from July 2016, working to encourage more small businesses to sell to the public sector and its major suppliers.

In June 2012 Emma was awarded an MBE for Services to Enterprise. Emma was awarded the rank Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2021.

About the Office of the Small Business Commissioner

The Office of the Small Business Commissioner (OSBC) is an independent public body established by Government under the Enterprise Act 2016 to tackle late payments and unfair payment practices. It supports small businesses to get paid quickly and on time, influences large businesses to improve payment times to suppliers and works with all business to improve the culture of payment practices across the whole of the UK.

The OSBC has a statutory duty to review complaints by small businesses regarding late payments, as well as provide advice and support on issues relating to late payment and payment practices in the private sector. The OSBC undertakes a range activity to improve outcomes for small businesses and work across Government, and with partners in the private and third sector, to raise awareness of the impact of late payments and unfair payment practices.