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Mr. Macshane
To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will list the number of new businesses started up by year and region since 1990. [4709]
Mr. Page
The best indicator of regional trends in business start-ups is given by figures on VAT registrations. Annual numbers of registrations for 1990 to 1994 are given in the table.
| VAT registrations 1990–94 | |||||
| Thousands | |||||
| Region | 1990 | 11991 | 1992 | 21993 | 21994 |
| South East | 95.7 | 81.9 | 74.2 | 79.1 | 78.9 |
| East Anglia | 8.5 | 7.5 | 6.4 | 6.8 | 6.6 |
| South West | 20.2 | 17.4 | 15.6 | 15.9 | 15.7 |
| West Midlands | 19.1 | 16.6 | 15.8 | 15.6 | 15.5 |
| East Midlands | 15.4 | 13.5 | 12.1 | 12.3 | 12.3 |
| Yorkshire and Humberside | 17.1 | 15.1 | 13.6 | 13.6 | 13.3 |
| North West | 24.0 | 21.0 | 19.2 | 17.7 | 17.4 |
| North | 8.3 | 6.9 | 6.2 | 6.3 | 6.4 |
| Wales | 10.2 | 8.4 | 7.5 | 7.2 | 7.2 |
| Scotland | 16.3 | 13.9 | 12.7 | 12.6 | 12.8 |
| Northern Ireland | 4.3 | 3.7 | 3.7 | 4.0 | 3.9 |
| United Kingdom | 239 | 206 | 187 | 191 | 190 |
Notes:
1 Includes an adjustment for effect of change in the VAT threshold in the 1991 budget.
2 Includes an adjustment for effect of change in the VAT threshold in the November 1993 budget.
Following the threshold change in 1991, figures for 1992 to 1994 are not comparable with the figures for earlier years.