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Dept of Trade and Industry

Answer

Mrs. Roche: To ask the President of the Board of Trade, pursuant to his answer of 14 November, Official Report, column 315, what information his Department collates regarding (a) the percentage of UK small and medium firms who export, (b) the figures in each EU country and (c) the EU average. [6555] Mr. Richard Page: [holding answer 28 November 1996]: My Department has collated estimates from two independent sources on the percentage of small and medium enterprises which export; these estimates are set out in the table. The European Commission defines a small or medium enterprise as one that employs fewer than 250 employees. The table does not give the percentage of small and medium enterprises that export according to this definition, nor can it be derived from the published information. There is also no information on the sample sizes or the general quality of the data. Percentage of small and medium sized enterprises who export _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Enterprise size United Kingdom Italy Holland Portugal Spain (no. of employees) 1990 1991 1993 1992 1991 0-9 28 No data 7 5 18 10-19 39 39 25 25 18 20-49 39 57 38 25 35 50-99 39 75 44 25 49 100-249 No data 75 55 63 69 250-499 No data 77 55 73 84 500+ No data 64 55 86 89 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Sources: For the UK: The state of British Enterprise, University of Cambridge 1992. For other EU countries: European Observatory for SMEs, 1994 annual report.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

6555; 286 c498W;286 c496W

Session

1996-97

Subjects

EU countries Exports Small businesses Italy Netherlands Portugal Spain

Contains statistics

Yes