Business secretary John Hutton has welcomed the arrival of former CBI director general Sir Digby Jones to the cabinet as a positive move.

Mr Hutton told the Financial Times he was "honoured to be working with Digby", adding it was "tremendous to have him inside the government".

At times Sir Digby has been an outspoken critic of the government as he has consistently sought to champion small businesses. He has been particularly scathing of the level of bureaucracy faced by entrepreneurs and the nature of taxation on SMEs.

And, with small businesses seeing corporation tax rise in the last Budget - delivered by the new prime minister Gordon Brown - there is some speculation that his presence in the cabinet could make for some fiery discussion.

However, Mr Hutton dismissed suggestions that an "outspoken minister" might prove difficult, stressing that he wanted the government to use his experience to deliver on its objectives.

"We're trying to get the [business] focus right across government. I want the department to be a very, very powerful voice for business," he went on.

"There's absolutely no doubting the government's absolute commitment to stand up for business."

Small businesses contribute more than half of total business turnover in the UK, employing 12.6 million people, according to the Small Business Service.

A recent Connect survey found that the two major concerns about outsourcing services like IT support were 'loss of control' (56 per cent) and 'budget over-runs' (43 per cent).