§ Mr. David Steelasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if, pursuant to his reply on 17 November, Official Report, c. 266, he will estimate figures for employment in the 8,000 businesses which have opened in Scotland and the 7,000 that have closed.
§ Mr. YoungerThe figures I gave are based on the number of businesses registering for VAT and deregistering for VAT in 1981. The system of VAT statistics does not allow estimates of the jobs associated with these businesses to be made.