HC Deb 20 January 1993 vol 217 c309W
27. Mr. Jenkin

To ask the President of the Board of Trade what progress he has made on the lifting of the burdens of regulation and form-filling for small and medium-sized enterprises; and if he will make a statement on regulations and forms scrapped since 10 April 1992.

Mr. Neil Hamilton

I refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave earlier today to the hon. Member for Ludlow (Mr. Gill).

1992. Mr. David Evans

To ask the President of the Board of Trade how many small businesses there were in(a) 1979 and (b)

Mr. Leigh

Comprehensive figures on the number of small businesses in 1992 are not available. An indication of the change in the number of small businesses can be obtained by comparing the number of VAT registered businesses. The number of businesses registered for VAT at the end of 1979 was 1,289,000. At the end of 1991, the latest year for which we have figures, the number of businesses was 1,716,000, a rise of 33 per cent. These figures have been adjusted to take account of the uplift in the VAT thresholds.