To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what progress has been made against the Government’s target announced in the 2006 Budget to reduce the 3,000 business support schemes to 100 by 2010; and how many of those 3,000 schemes have been (a) ended and (b) merged with other schemes. (254002)

My noble Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform announced on 23 October 2008 that a streamlined portfolio of 30 national support products within the ‘Solutions for Business’ portfolio would be in place by March 2009. This portfolio draws on the best of existing and new schemes and represents a substantial reduction from the estimated 3,000 publicly-funded business support schemes that were previously available.

By March 2010 all Government business support products will either have closed, or been given notice to close or migrated to the portfolio. As products wind down businesses will be steered to Solutions for Business products according to need.