To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list the total number of (a) business start ups and (b) business failures in (i) Great Britain and (ii) each of the regions for the last five years for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement.

Regional estimates of VAT registrations and deregistrations, for the years 1980 to 1990, were published in the November 1991 issue of the Employment Gazette, a copy of which is available in the Library.These show clearly the sustained expansion of the small firms sector during the 1980s, in all regions of the country.