§ Mr. SquireTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will detail the main measures for assisting small companies which have been announced in the last 12 months.
§ Mr. ForthThe main measures have included a number of VAT easements such as increasing the registration threshold to £35,000; increasing the corporation tax threshold by 25 per cent. to £250,000; sponsoring a one-day enterprise workshop for all training and enterprise councils; giving training and enterprise councils a wide measure of flexibility on how they administer the enterprise allowance scheme; extending the enterprise initiative for a further three years and introducing three specific programmes to help small firms innovate, solve technical problems and introduce modern manufacturing systems.