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Cabinet Office

Answer

Dr. Kumar: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many small and medium-sized enterprises, by region, have been assisted in meeting Government Ministers through the work of the Business Co-ordination Unit; what percentage of those meetings resulted from invitations originally refused by ministerial offices; and what information he has collated on meetings between each departmental Minister and SMEs in the last 12 months. [14884] Mrs. Roche: 1. Over the last 12 months the BCU has arranged 211 ministerial visits. A "visit" can be a bilateral, larger meeting, discussion group, seminar or conference involving SMEs. The number of SMEs attending these events can vary in number from one (for bilateral) to 500 (for conferences). 2. The BCU does not keep records specifically on the number of SMEs it has arranged ministerial meetings with. The following information has been estimated based on the original invitation paperwork received from the event organisers. _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Regions Number of visits Number of SMEs attended Number of visits from Number of SMEs from declined invitations declined invitations London 49 1,683 15 910 East Midlands 37 914 8 466 East 9 53 1 10 South West 16 139 2 30 South East 32 1,020 5 820 North West 12 493 2 120 North East 5 600 5 350 West Midlands 33 622 6 285 Yorkshire and Humber 16 434 5 270 Wales 1 20 0 0 Scotland 1 20 0 0 Total 211 5,998 49 (23%) 3,261 (54%) _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 3. The majority of declined invitations tend to be for large conferences, which explains why 23 per cent. of declined invitations represents over 54 per cent. of SMEs met. 4. The BCU does not collate or retain information exchanged at meetings between Ministers and SMEs; any relevant points made by SMEs are immediately relayed back to the appropriate Department for further consideration.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

375 c466W;375 c468W; 14884

Session

2001-02

Subjects

Economic regions Ministers Small businesses Visits Business Coordination Unit

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk