§ Mr. LlwydTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what estimate he has made of the number of new businesses established in rural areas in each of the last five years. [136629]
§ Dr. HowellsWhen providing assistance to businesses, the Small Business Service (SBS) has historically recorded only the size of the business helped. Age of the business is not reported.
Information on assistance given to farmers by Business Links is being collected this year as a result of the recent introduction of the Farm Business Advice Service. This is one of the measures introduced this year to help farming and horticultural industries within the Government's Action Plan for Farming announced this year on 30 March.
Information on the number of farmers receiving assistance under these measures is not expected to be available until February 2001 as the initiative was introduced only in September.