§ Mr. NormanTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many new business start-ups there were in each year since 1995, broken down by industry. [185331]
§ Nigel GriffithsBarclays Bank's latest survey of business creation includes non-VAT registered firms and shows that there were 115,000 business start ups in England and Wales in the fourth quarter of 2003. The latest yearly figures show 465,000 business start ups in England and Wales in 2003. This represents a 19 per cent. increase on the year before.
DTI figures based solely on UK VAT registrations by main industry group are shown as follows for the period 1995 to 2002. Data for 2003 will be available in Autumn 2004.
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VAT Registrations 1995–2002 Thousand 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 Finance 1.5 1.7 1.8 1.8 1.8 1.9 1.6 1.2 Business services 48.4 54.6 64.7 69.3 63.3 66.9 63.1 63.2 Education, health 1.8 2.0 2.2 2.1 2.3 2.2 2.2 2.3 Other services 17.4 15.6 16.3 15.3 14.9 15.7 15.5 15.0 Source: Business Start-ups and closures: VAT Registrations and De-registrations 1994–2002, Small Business Service www.sbs.gov.uk/statistics/analytical/vatstats.php VAT registrations do not capture all start-up activity. Businesses are unlikely to be registered if they fall below the compulsory VAT threshold, which has risen in each year since 1995. Similarly, businesses that de-register will not necessarily have closed. Only 1.8 million out of 3.8 million enterprises were registered for VAT at the start of 2002.