§ Mrs. Rumboldasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what measures his Department has taken to encourage the setting up of small businesses in the period since October 1983.
§ Mr. TrippierMy Department continues to encourage and stimulate the development of new small businesses through both a variety of measures, many of which were already in existence in October 1983, and the inquiry and counselling functions of the small firms service. Since October 1983 my Department has been responsible for the following further developments in the small firms sector, all of which are of some benefit to new small firms:
- developing the performance of the small firms service so that it has been able to handle a total of 291,000 inquiries and 23,000 new counselling cases in the past 12 months;
- sponsoring seminars for professional advisers so as to increase their awareness of small arms' financing problems;
- extending the loan guarantee scheme beyond the original three-year pilot phase whilst the current review of the future of the scheme is undertaken;
- announcing that all the Department's schemes and services are to be streamlined and their presentation simplified;
- proposing the extension of funding to the Co-operative Development Agency;
- providing extra encouragement for small exporters;
- encouraging the growth of Local Enterprise Agencies.
In addition, we have worked with other Departments to reduce the administrative and legislative burdens on small firms. This has lead to the current scrutiny of burdens being conducted under the guidance of the Prime Minister's efficiency unit.