§ Mr. Peter Lloydasked the Secretary of State for Industry how many new businesses were formed, how many existing businesses went into liquidation and what was the net increase in the numbers unemployed in each year from 1975 to the latest 12-month period available.
§ Mr. MacGregorThere are no satisfactory figures of formations or deaths of businesses covering the whole of this period. For 1980, it is estimated from VAT sources that in Great Britain about 120,000 businesses started to trade at a level where their turnover was above the VAT threshold; a similar number stopped trading.
Figures of insolvencies—bankruptcies and company liquidations—account for only a small proportion of businesses that stop trading and are published regularly in British Business; the latest issue containing figures from 1975 was 23 October page 344.
Figures of changes in unemployment related to business births and deaths are not available.