§ Mr. McLeishTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what was the rate of new business formation and failure in(a) Fife and (b) Scotland on a quarterly basis over the last three years.
§ Mr. Neil Hamilton[holding answer 27 June 1994]: Not all the figures requested are available. The best guide to trends in the number of business starts and closures comes from the annual VAT data; quarterly data are not available. Figures for the years 1990 to 1992 are published in "VAT Registrations and Deregistrations, County and District Analysis", 1980 to 1991, and 1992 editions. Both these documents are available in the Library of the House or online via NOMIS.
Quarterly figures for company insolvencies in Scotland were last published on 6 May in the Association of British Chambers of Commerce's "Business Briefing", which is available in the Library of the House. Equivalent figures for Fife are not available.