§ Mr. Richard Pageasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, in view of the recent report published by Graham Bannock in the Economist Intelligence Unit, a copy of which has been sent to him, and which found the United Kingdom near the bottom of the league of support for small businesses, he will take steps to rectify this situation.
§ Mr. TrippierThe full EIU report is about to be published and my Department will be studying it; it is, therefore, premature to comment in detail. However, I believe that overall the climate for the smaller firm in the United Kingdom has been substantially improved since this Government took office in 1979. More work needs to be done and we are committed to making further progress. If the EIU report includes some useful pointers, we will certainly take these into account.
§ Mr. Richard Pageasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will set up a research project to examine the relative levels of support given to small businesses by the Government in the United Kingdom and in other major industrial countries.
§ Mr. TrippierI see no need for such a study. Merely comparing the levels of support in various countries would not be very revealing for policy purposes. My Department keeps in touch with developments in small firms policy in other countries and we are always willing to learn from others' experience. But many of the measures introduced overseas reflect different industrial structures from that in the United Kingdom and sometimes different approaches by Governments to economic and industrial policy. Straight replication is, therefore, often inappropriate.