§ Malcolm BruceTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many people(a) entered self-employment and (b) were considering going into business on the latest month for which figures are available, broken down by (i) region and (ii) local authority area. [143133]
§ Nigel GriffithsThe Office for National Statistics' Labour Force Survey estimates the stock of self-employed people in the UK, and in Summer 2003, there were 3.4 million self-employed people in the UK. Regional estimates are also available (see Table 1).
New VAT registrations are the best guide to new business activity (start-ups) in the UK and are available for regions and local/unitary authorities are set out in Table 3 which I have placed in the Libraries of the House.
In 2001, 12 per cent. of working age adults in England were considering going into business (or becoming self-employed). Data for the nine regions in England are shown in Table 2.
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Table 1: Self-employed people in the UK and regions, summer 2003 Region and country Total self-employed persons North East 89,000 North West 321,000 Yorkshire and the Humber 228,000 East Midlands 224,000 West Midlands 244,000 East 361,000 London 535,000 South East 554,000 South West 343,000 Wales 171,000 Scotland 232,000 Northern Ireland 93,000 United Kingdom total 3,398,000 Source:
ONS Labour Force Survey, Summer 2003. Due to slight methodological differences between the way the national and regional LFS estimates have been interim adjusted for the 2001 Census, there may be slight differences between the UK total and the sum of the regional components
Table 2: Would-be entrepreneurs by region, England, 2001 Region Percentage of 16 to 64-year-olds East Midlands 10 Eastern 9 London 15 North East 8 North West 11 South East 13 South West 11 West Midlands 12 Yorkshire and the Humber 10 England 12 Source:
SBS Household Survey of Entrepreneurship, 2001