§ 2.39 p.m.
§ Lord GridleyMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
The Question was as follows:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what it has done to provide better advice and facilities for individuals who wish to set up their own businesses.
Viscount LongMy Lords, the Department of Industry's Small Firms Service provides information and business advice for individuals wishing to set up their own business in England. The Council for Small Industries in Rural Areas provides such a service in rural areas. Similar facilities are provided in Scotland by the Scottish Development Agency, in Wales by the Welsh Office and Welsh Development Agency, in Northern Ireland by the Northern Ireland Department of Commerce and Local Enterprise Development Unit. In November 1979 a modest increase of resources was authorised to enable the Small Firms Service to handle more inquiries, a considerable number of which come from people wishing to start a business. Valuable work is also done in this field by local authorities, local enterprise units and a number of voluntary organisations.
§ Lord GridleyMy Lords, while thanking my noble friend Lord Long for the Answer which he has given and warmly supporting the Government in the assistance they are rendering to small businesses, may I ask him whether what they are doing is obtaining the widest publicity and reaching the public generally?
Viscount LongMy Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend. The staff of the Small Firms Service handled over 93,000 inquiries during 1980 for information connected with starting or running a business. Some 8,900 of these inquiries were referred to a Small Firms Service counsellor for in-depth advice. Counsellors are experienced businessmen engaged by the department for this purpose. Over 80 per cent. of the inquiries employ fewer than 25 people—about half of the individuals wishing to start in business. In 1979–80 it cost the Government about £1.8 million. The service employs about 75 civil servants in London and in the regional centres and engages the services of about 130 experienced businessmen as counsellors.
§ Lord AveburyMy Lords, what advice and facilities are the Government making available to the many thousands of small firms which are going into receivership and liquidation as a result of the policies of Her Majesty's Government?
Viscount LongMy Lords, at this stage I am only interested in the Question, which is to do with helping those people who want to go into business.
§ The Earl of LauderdaleMy Lords, could my noble friend say whether the advice centres to which he has referred cover the provision of accountancy advice, so that small firms learn to use their balance sheets as an instrument of management and not for tax evasion and that, above all, they are taught to resist the seductive temptation of over-trading?
Viscount LongMy Lords, this question goes into the whole structure of helping small businesses. The advisory service is very conscious of the need to help small firms on the accountancy side.
§ Lord GridleyMy Lords, is my noble friend aware of the BBC "Money Programme" which goes out weekly and which calls attention to the national unemployment figures and the number of firms going out of operation? In that connection, no mention is ever made of the numbers of unemployed who are setting up businesses on their own and who are also employing people who were hitherto unemployed. Is not that rather an unbalanced programme which does not give credit to the Government for what they are trying to achieve at present, which should receive publicity? May I ask my noble friend whether that is not rather adverse publicity which should be inquired into and corrected?
Viscount LongMy Lords, I am most grateful to my noble friend for bringing that question forward and I shall certainly inform my right honourable friend and my department in order that the necessary steps may be taken.
§ Lord LeatherlandMy Lords, may I suggest to the noble Viscount that that factor is already taken into account with the monthly unemployment figures, where the number of people who have new jobs is subtracted from the large and ever-increasing number of people who have lost their jobs, to give us finally a net figure for lost jobs?
Viscount LongMy Lords, I quite understand the noble Lord, and of course as more and more redundant people become unemployed and receive a "hand-out" in money, so they are coming to the advisory service for help in starting a small business.
§ Baroness SharplesMy Lords, is my noble friend satisfied with the number of new businesses that are starting up?