- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 27 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will measure the number of new businesses created in Scotland by reference to the number of VAT registered businesses and, if not, by what other means will the number of new businesses be measured.
Answer
There is no single indicator available to measure the number of new businesses created in Scotland. The Scottish Executive uses a number of indicators including VAT registration, New Business Statistics data produced jointly by Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Committee of Scottish Clearing Bankers, and the Scottish Executive's own Annual Corporate Sector Analysis.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 27 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has received written representations from the Scottish Council of Development and Industry opposing the decision to abandon the policy of a common UK non-domestic poundage and in particular to set a provisional poundage which is 10.1% higher than that in England.
Answer
Yes.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 27 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive in what way its mentoring scheme will differ from previous schemes, and (a) what is its estimated annual cost; (b) what will each mentor be paid; (c) who will choose mentors, and (d) from what business organisations it has taken advice regarding the scheme.
Answer
The introduction of a national mentoring scheme is a Programme for Government commitment, and we are on course to introduce Business Mentoring Scotland in April as planned. We hope to be able to announce details of the scheme within the next month or so.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 27 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish for each of the past five years (a) the total number of evictions raised by local authorities and (b) the number of tenants in such actions who purchased their home from the local authority under the Right to Buy scheme and thus avoided eviction.
Answer
This information is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 27 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what initiatives it has implemented since 1 July 1999 in relation to helping small businesses.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is committed to improving public sector support to small businesses. Through the Executive, and related agencies, we have introduced a number of measures that will have a positive impact on the small business community. New initiatives implemented since 1 1999 July include: the Innovators Counselling and Advisory Service for Scotland which provides a specialist counselling service for Scotland's inventors and small innovative firms; introduction of an e-commerce suppliers directory and SMART guides for users by Scottish Enterprise; the launch of Loan Action Scotland, an energy saving initiative which will allow small companies to adopt energy efficiency measures in the workplace; the Scottish Learning Network which will establish 500 "learning points" within small businesses; establishment of The Improving Regulation in Scotland Unit (IRIS) to assist with regulatory issues; and announcement of the formation of a Small Business Forum. To ensure direct and continuing dialogue between the Scottish Executive and the small business community as a whole, a range of other developments are also ongoing or in the pipeline including: a consultation on Scottish Tourism; the formation of a Scottish Manufacturing Strategy; Knowledge Economy consultation seminars; and the launch of a consultation document to help develop a framework for economic development in Scotland.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 27 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will take any steps to reduce regulation of small businesses and, if so, what steps it will take.
Answer
The Improving Regulation in Scotland Unit will pursue business concerns about the burden of regulation and will work closely with small business representative groups to ensure that the particular needs of small businesses are kept to the forefront of policy making throughout the Executive. My officials in the IRIS Unit will soon be arranging the first of a series of meetings I plan to have with business across the country to hear at first hand about the regulatory problems they are encountering.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 27 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what the total value is of financial assistance that has been provided in Scotland for each of the past five years to the pig industry.
Answer
The CAP pigs regime does not provide direct support to pig farmers. This sector does benefit indirectly through EU funded private storage aids and export refunds, although the benefit to the Scottish industry cannot be accurately quantified.The following table lists offers of known financial support which have been made to this sector over the past five years.Offers of financial assistance made to the pig industry 1995-1999 (£'000s)
1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 |
547 | 578 | 100 | 319 | 3,100 |
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 27 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what funding will be provided by the Business Growth Fund over each of the next 10 years and from what budget source; who will be responsible for administering this fund; what is the estimated costs for each of the next 10 years, and what gap the fund is designed to fill.
Answer
Funding of £12 million is being provided under the Business Growth Fund over three years (£3 million in 1999-2000; £4 million in 2000-01; £5 million in 2001-02), for loans between £20,000 and £100,000. These funds have been allocated to both Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise who are responsible for the administration of the scheme. £2 million has already been committed under the Fund. A decision on whether to extend the funding beyond the initial three years will be made towards the end of that period following a review of the impact of the scheme.Small companies can face difficulties in raising sufficient funding due to their size and risk profile. The Business Growth Fund seeks to address this by providing assistance to businesses which are commercially viable and have growth potential, but which are unable to access sufficient funding from established sources.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 27 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will develop a strategy to provide greater emphasis on indigenous business rather than on inward investment, and if so, what will be its components and whether it will consult on the strategy.
Answer
I have recently asked officials to devise a Framework for Economic Development in Scotland. It will address a range of questions relating to Scotland's economic development and should provide an integrated and coherent framework within which to consider a range of economic policy questions such as the roles of inward investment and indigenous business. An extensive consultation exercise is currently underway. This involves face-to-face meetings between officials and a wide range of interested parties across Scotland and an open invitation to any other individuals or organisations, through a press release and consultation paper on the Scottish Executive web site, to submit their views.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 27 January 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how many businesses there were in Scotland at the time of publication of Making it Work Together, and of them, how many were (a) small, and (b) large and what its estimate is of these figures for each of the next ten years.
Answer
The latest estimates available for the number and size of businesses in Scotland are for November 1998. At that time there were an estimated 299,110 enterprises operating in Scotland. Of these, 293,705 were small enterprises (0-49 employees), 3,275 were medium-sized enterprises (50-249 employees) and 2,130 were large enterprises (250+ employees).Further details are available in a Government Statistical Service News Release which was published on Wednesday 26 January 2000. A copy is available in SPICe.The Scottish Executive does not make statistical projections for the number of businesses operating in Scotland in future years.
