Centre for European Business Information (Hansard, 17 January 1989)

§ 7. Mr. Ian Taylor
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what use has been made by firms of the centre for European business information set up within the small firms service.

§ Mr. Cope
Over 2,400 inquiries have been made to the European information centre since it was set up in the London office of the small firms service in December 1987.

§ Mr. Taylor
I am grateful to my right hon. Friend. Is the part payment with the European Commission helping to set up other regional centres? Can he give us some more information about those centres so that more small firms can use them? That will enable them to defend their home 145 market and to expand in the European Community through a better understanding of the rules and regulations in the Community.

§ Mr. Cope
The Community is making proposals for a further 20 centres throughout this country and others overseas. Three other centres are already functioning in Birmingham, Newcastle and Glasgow. The four that operate at present are pilot centres. They can be contacted through our own small firms offices all over the country and it is extremely important that small firms in particular make use of them.

§ Mr. Soames
Is my right hon. Friend aware of the high degree of language skills that will be required by business men seeking to operate in the wider Community after 1992? What steps is his Department taking, through the small business service and its European assistants, to provide further teaching and guidance for small business men to help them expand their language skills?

§ Mr. Cope
The small firms service and the European information centre are not in the business of training; they are in the business of advice and counselling, but the Training Agency is paying attention to the problem of language training which, as my hon. Friend says, is extremely important as 1992 approaches.

§ Mr. Skinner
In view of the fact that more than 150,000 small firms have gone bankrupt or suffered company liquidation in the 10 years of this Government, including the small firm that succeeded in Alf Roberts' corner shop in Grantham, which went bankrupt last year, and in view of the 18 per cent. borrowing rate for small businesses, as declared by the Financial Times last week, what advice will the Minister be giving to small firms now to help them keep their heads above water?

§ Mr. Cope
The number of small firms which started up and succeeded exceeds the number of those to which the hon. Gentleman draws attention which did not succeed. It is most important to obtain proper advice and counselling. The advice that I would give to people thinking of setting up in business, or who are already in business, is to make sure that they obtain proper advice. It is widely availale both from our small firms service and from local enterprise agencies and others where expert counselling is available. The figures show that those small firms that take advice are much more likely to succeed.