Written question asked by Matthew Offord (Conservative) on Wednesday, 2 July 2014, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 7 July 2014. It was answered by Lord Willetts (Conservative) on Wednesday, 9 July 2014 on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

British Library Business and IP Centre

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate his Department has made of the number of jobs created in partnership with the British Library's Business & IP Centre national network.

Answer: The Intellectual Property Office worked with the British Library Business and IP Centre (BIPC) to develop a national blueprint that other libraries can use to develop a business and IP service in key UK cities. A programme to initially embed the blueprint into Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and Sheffield was launched in July 2013. It is too early to provide impact data for the whole network, but data for the BIPC London and BIPC Newcastle shows that since they opened these two centres have helped to create approximately 2800 businesses and 3500 jobs in new and existing businesses.

Secondary information