§ Mr. David Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Industry what has been the estimated change in the size of the small business sector since the Bolton Report was published.
§ Mr. KaufmanNo reliable statistics are available on which to base an estimate of the change in the size of the small business sector since the publication of the Bolton Report. The most recent statistics on the retailing and manufacturing sectors which are derived from 1971 censuses suggest that there had been no decline in the numbers of small firms in these sectors as compared with the 1963 data used by the Committee of Enquiry on Small Firms.