HC Deb 02 February 1988 vol 126 cc559-60W
88. Mrs. Ann Winterton

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many inquiries were received by enterprise agencies and as a consequence how many new businesses were created in 1987.

Mr. Cope

Local enterprise agencies are independent bodies accountable to their own boards and sponsors. This Department does not have comprehensive information on the inquiries they handle or the businesses they have helped to create.

Business in the Community's most recent survey of agencies, undertaken in spring 1986, showed that the 132 agencies responding to a question on inquiries had handled some 129,000 enquiries. 118 agencies replying to a question on business start-ups claimed to have helped create more than 10,000 new businesses.