§ Mr. WelshTo ask the President of the Board of Trade how many new companies in(a) England, (b) Wales, (c) Scotland and (d) Northern Ireland have registered in each of the past seven years; and if he will provide a breakdown by sector. [7245]
§ Mr. OppenheimResponsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to Companies House under its chief executive Mr. David Durham. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from David Durham to Mr. Andrew Welsh, dated 20 December 1995:
You recently asked the President of the Board of Trade for information on the registration of new companies. The President has asked me to deal with your request, as I have responsibility as Chief Executive and Registrar of Companies.We are able to give you separate figures for the seven years for Scotland and Northern Ireland, but only a combined figure for England and Wales. We are not sure what you mean by "breakdown by sector". If you are referring to industry type, this information could be gathered from our database, but the exercise would be extremely time consuming and would not be economically viable.
New Companies Incorporated Financial year England/Wales Scotland Northern Ireland 1994–95 124,800 7,100 1,053 1993–94 109,000 6,400 955 1992–93 102,700 6,100 891 1991–92 105,400 6,600 1,075 1990–91 108,700 6,800 1,103 1989–90 119,300 7,000 1,186 1988–89 128,100 6,900 1,067 The statistics for England/Wales and Scotland are taken from DTI report "Companies in 1994–95": statistics for Northern Ireland are provided by the Information Unit, NI Registry.I hope this information is helpful.