§ Mr. GibbTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the number of businesses with fewer than 17 employees. [81706]
§ Ms HewittThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Tim Holt to Mr. Nick Gibb, dated 26 April 1999:
As Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your recent parliamentary question on employment.There are 1.75 million VAT and PAYE based businesses in the UK with less than 17 employees, as at April 1999. It is estimated that there are a further 1.8 million smaller businesses without employees and with low turnovers.Information is provided from the Inter Departmental Business Register (IDBR), which is administered by the ONS. The register contains details for all businesses in the UK that are traders registered for VAT and/or employers with PAYE schemes.The ONS annual employment survey is the main source for the number of employees. For businesses that are not selected for this inquiry, employee estimates are obtained through employer PAYE returns. If the business is registered only for VAT, the business will generally have no employees. Such businesses without employees are included in the above counts. Smaller businesses without employees and not registered for VAT are excluded from these counts.62WMore detailed information on businesses registered for VAT is published annually by the ONS in Size Analysis of UK Businesses -(PA1003), most recently for 1998. Broad estimates for all businesses are published by the Department of Trade and Industry, based on the IDBR, in Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Statistics for the UK, latest version for 1997. Both publications are available in the House of Commons Library.