The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated March 2010:
As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question concerning how many small businesses have closed in (a) Reading East constituency and (b) Berkshire in each year since 1997. [324827]
Annual statistics on business births, deaths and survival are available for 2002 onwards from the ONS release on Business Demography at
www.statistics.gov.uk
The table below contains the latest statistics available on business deaths for Reading East and Berkshire.
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Reading East 1— 1— 1— 528 523 496 507 Former County of Berkshire 3,770 4,212 4,121 3,778 3,621 3,609 3,570 Bracknell Forest UA 445 489 509 480 459 385 434 Reading UA 710 701 647 630 650 595 628 Slough UA 485 476 507 397 401 400 381 West Berkshire UA 700 810 830 722 706 751 762 Windsor and Maidenhead UA 775 989 848 811 708 788 760 1 Data not available Notes: 1. The former county of Berkshire is the area now covered by the Unitary Authorities of Bracknell Forest, Reading, Slough, West Berkshire, Windsor and Maidenhead and Wokingham, all created on 1 April 1998. 2. A small business is defined as an enterprise with less than 50 employment