§ Mrs. LaingTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many business(a) insolvencies and (b) starts there were in Scotland in each year since 1992. [77768]
§ Mr. DewarThe information is as follows.
(a) Statistics on insolvencies are produced by statisticians in the Department of Trade and Industry. The information is shown in the following table:
Individuals Companies Year Sequestrations Total Compulsory liquidations Creditors' voluntary liquidations 1992 10,845 670 310 360 1993 6,828 551 286 265 1994 2,182 414 242 202 1995 2,188 441 252 189 1996 2,503 441 266 175 1997 2,502 477 254 223 1998 3,016 566 338 228 Note:
Insolvent individuals in Scotland are subject to sequestration under the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 1985. The Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 1993 amending the 1985 Act came into force on 1 April 1993, and will have affected the number of sequestrations in the Scottish courts.
Source:
DTI
(b) The best official source of information relating to business starts is the VAT registration data. The information requested is shown in the following table:
396W
Business start-ups: enterprises registering for VAT in Scotland Year Number 1992 12,665 1993 12,600 1994 11,345
Business start-ups: enterprises registering for VAT in Scotland Year Number 1995 11,195 1996 11,275 1997 12,280 Note:
Pre-1994 figures are not entirely comparable with later figures because they counted VAT units rather than whole enterprises, and also because of an unusually large increase in the threshold for VAT registration in 1993.
Source:
DTI SME Statistics Unit