§ Mr. MilburnTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 20 January,Official Report, columns 777–80, if he will provide a comparable table showing the stock of VAT registered businesses at January 1991 and December 1993 by Customs area.
§ Sir John CopeNumbers of VAT-registered traders are available only for calendar quarters. Those for quarters ended December 1990 and December 1993 were as follows:
702W
Total number of registered traders at Collection December 1990 December 1993 Belfast 53,886 54,684 Birmingham 122,255 112,776 Dover 55,294 47,515 East Anglia 71,755 79,986 East Midlands 96,938 90,118 Edinburgh 62,970 62,427 Glasgow 61,213 58,046 Leeds 94,593 88,741 Liverpool 92,493 84,314 London Central 38,423 37,432 London North and West 86,513 76,994 London Port 55,388 46,343 London South 109,917 99,078 Manchester 90,042 83,460 Northampton 121,350 98,129 Northern England 76,335 71,295 Southampton 89,255 78,890 South Wales and Borders 110,756 102,963 South West England 121,718 109,339 Thames Valley 131,872 125,313 TOTAL 1,742,966 1,607,843