§ Malcolm BruceTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many businesses in the United Kingdom were trading online(a) in each quarter in 2003 and (b) in each year since 1997, broken down by region. [143140]
§ Mr. TimmsThe DTI's International Benchmarking Study has been produced annually since 1997 and is used to measure the take-up and use of ICT's by business.
(a)No information is available on a quarterly basis.(b)Trading online figures by region, are only available for the period 2000 to 2002 (earlier studies did not capture this type of information). Copies of the International Benchmarking Study for 2000 (URN 00/147), 2001 (URN 01/147) and 2002 (URN 02/147) are available from the Libraries of the House.The 2003 study (URN 03/147) will be published on Thursday 11 December 2003. Copies will be available from the Libraries of the House.