Small Firms Service (Hansard, 22 February 1988)

§ Mr. David Nicholson
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is the average cost, including an estimate of all overhead costs, of answering each inquiry to the small firms service.

§ Mr. Cope
It is not possible to allocate costs solely to inquiries, since management of both the inquiry service and counselling service is closely interlinked. The small firms service in England in 1986–87 cost £4.7 million, excluding accommodation, dealt with 283,537 inquiries and provided 38,210 counselling sessions.

§ Mr. David Nicholson
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many full-time staff equivalents are employed in responding to inquiries to the small firms service.

§ Mr. Cope
Inquiries are handled in the main by inquiry officers of administrative officer grade. There are 58 such officers currently in post in the small firms service in England. Their duties however involve other responsibilities such as the management of the counselling service.

§ Mr. David Nicholson
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is the anticipated costs of the small firms service in the financial year 1988–89, to the nearest £100,000; and what was the comparable expenditure on the small firms service in each of the last four financial years.

§ Mr. Cope
The provision for the small firms service in England in 1988–89, is £6.3 million. For 1987–88 the expected outturn expenditure is £5.9 million. In 1986–87 the small firms service cost £4–7 million. These figures exclude accommodation costs. The small firms service was managed by the Department of Trade and Industry until September 1985 and figures for 1985–86 and 1984–85 are not available on a comparable basis.

§ Mr. David Nicholson
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what measures of output he uses to assess the efficiency of the small firms service in responding to inquiries.

§ Mr. Cope
The small firms service uses several indicators to assess the efficiency of the inquiry service. Figures for the total number of inquiries are collected, and compared with prior years and against set targets. In 1986–87 inquiries totalled over 283,000 a 11.1 per cent. rise on the previous year with no significant increase in staff.
An indicator of the usefulness of the information given is the percentage of inquiries from previous clients, or as a result of recommendations. In 1986–87 inquiries from these sources accounted for some 30 per cent. of the total number.
These figures relate to England only. The small firms service in Scotland is administered by the Scottish Development Agency while the service in Wales it is administered by the Welsh Development Agency.