§ Mr. David Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Industry what is his most recent estimate of the number of small firms as defined by the Bolton Inquiry in the United Kingdom, broken down if possible into Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and England; and how many of the above trade as self-employed persons.
Mr. Alan WilliamsPost-Bolton statistics of any reliability are available for566W the retail, manufacturing and construction sectors only. For these sectors the numbers of small firms taken from the latest published censuses are as follows:
Manufacturing, 70,595 (Census of Production 1970).Retail, 416,667 (Census of Distribution 1971).Construction, 89,151 (D. of E. Private Contractors Construction Census 1973).It is not possible to break these figures down by regional distribution. Neither is it possible to estimate the number of self-employed people in these sectors. However, the Bolton Report estimated that 16.2 per cent. of small manufacturing enterprises, 27.4 per cent. of small constructions firms and 64.4 per cent. of small retail shops were either partnerships or sole proprietorships. There is no evidence to suggest that these percentages have materially altered.
§ Mr. David Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Industry what is his most recent estimate of the number of persons employed by small firms as defined by the Bolton Committee.
Mr. Alan WilliamsPost-Bolton statistics of any reliability are available for the retail, manufacturing and construction sectors only. For these sectors, the numbers of people employed in small firms taken from the latest published censuses are as follows
Manufacturing, 1,621,066 (Census of Production 1970).Retail, 779,033 (Census of Distribution 1971).Construction, 161.030 (D. of E. Private Contractors Construction Census 1973).