§ Mr. BellinghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the market penetration of business link operators. [185454]
§ Nigel GriffithsBusiness Link Operators were used by around 606,000 customers in 2003–04 comprising 435,000 existing firms (representing a 40 per cent. growth in use by existing firms between 2002–03 and 2003–04) and 171,000 pre-start businesses. Expressed as a ratio of the Inter-Departmental Business Register of around 1.8 million firms (the largest official count), this is a market penetration rate of 34 per cent. in 2003–04.
A more detailed table is provided:
BLO usage—all customers, in-year cumulative Percentage 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 Existing Businesses 1 14 17 24 Pre-starts1 2n/a 2n/a 10 Total customer usage — — 34
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VAT Registrations 1995–2002 Thousand 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 All industries 165.8 171.0 187.7 187.5 181.4 184.0 174.6 175.8 Agriculture, fishing 4.4 4.6 4.7 4.1 3.7 3.6 3.3 3.8 Mining, energy, water 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 Manufacturing 14.5 14.7 14.4 13.4 12.7 12.0 10.8 10.1 Construction 15.8 15.4 19.7 18.5 18.2 17.8 18.3 18.9 Wholesale, retail, repairs 37.8 37.7 37.5 36.9 37.1 36.1 31.3 32.7 Hotels, restaurants 15.6 16.1 17.0 16.8 17.8 18.2 19.1 19.2 Transport, communication 8.5 8.4 9.2 9.2 9.4 9.5 9.3 9.3
BLO usage—all customers, in-year cumulative Number 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 Existing Businesses 245,342 309,665 435,293 Pre-starts 2n/a 2n/a 170,749 Total customer usage — — 606,042 1Rate per 100 VAT and/or PAYE registered businesses. 2 Pre-start users not available as an annual figure prior to 2003–04.