There is no agreed definition of "independent". However, on 23 April 2013 the Office for National Statistics published figures on their website showing the total number of births, deaths and active enterprises in England in the retail sector by employment size band, sole proprietor and partnerships only, (excluding motor vehicles and motor cycles) from 2007 to 2011. This information is summarised as follows:

Our commitment to hold business rate rises to the annual retail prices index cap means there has been no real terms increase in business rates since 1990. In addition, we have also postponed the revaluation of business premises from 2015 to 2017 to provide certainty and stability; doubled the level of small business rate relief for a further year (the whole of 2013-14); made it easier to claim small business rate relief; and given authorities powers to provide their own business rates discounts, as they see fit.

I refer the hon. Member to my answer today to PQs 151216, 151217 and 151218. In March 2012 DCLG issued the High Street Innovation Fund to the 100 designated local authorities and it is up to them how to distribute the money in their areas. In October 2012 Government also provided funding to councils to support the work of Town Team Partners. As part of that initiative, Birmingham city council were in receipt of £10,000 as the accountable body for Lifford Business Association, who were one of the 333 town teams who

registered to become a Town Team Partner. I advise the town team to speak to their council if they have not received this funding.

My Department has not commissioned or subscribed to any sources on shop vacancy.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Communities and Local Government have observer status on the Distressed Town Centre Properties Task Force, chaired by the British Council of Shopping Centres, which is currently undertaking a research project which includes an analysis of vacancy rates and the impact on town centres.

BIS has also a long-standing subscription with Verdict Research, whose reports on a wide range of retail issues include data and analysis on vacancy rates in localities. In 2011 the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills published a report 'Understanding High Street Performance' which also included data and analysis on vacancy rates.

There are also several commercial sources of shop vacancy rates data, including that available from the Local Data Company and Springboard, and who publish overall trends in the public domain.

We have regular contact with key stakeholders with an interest in the health and vitality of both the retail sector and the high street.

Specific high street shop closures, whilst unfortunate for all involved, are a commercial matter for retailers, their landlords, their lenders, their shareholders or, where relevant, their administrators. We encourage administrators, and retailers who are downsizing, to work with Jobcentre Plus to mitigate the impact of closures on employees. Also, any employer who is planning to make more than 20 redundancies in an establishment during a 90-day period is required to notify the Redundancy Payments Service (RPS). The RPS will then pass the information to other relevant government departments, offices and agencies that can assist the employees.

Pop-up shops are a superb way for entrepreneurs to test their ideas and to get empty retail spaces back into use. The Government is providing over £80 million in start-up loans for young entrepreneurs, which could create over 30,000 new businesses.

In December 2012 my Department worked with StartUp Britain to convert two meeting rooms in its Eland House headquarters into a pop-up shop and in January 2013, I hosted a briefing session for hon. Members and their Town Team Partners to encourage local areas to follow suit. A practical toolkit and model pop-up lease, produced by Startup Britain, is available at:

http://popupbritain.com/guidance-for-town-teams

StartUp Britain, which is responsible for the PopUp Britain campaign, has not received any direct financial support from DCLG. The Department has allowed StartUp Britain to re-use a meeting room in its Eland House headquarters to host a PopUp shop, which will offer affordable retail space to over 150 small start-up businesses over the coming year.

StartUp Britain also received £10,800 of funding from the StartUp Loans Company in 2012. Determining whether StartUp Britain has received income or benefits in kind from the wider public sector could be produced only at disproportionate cost.

I would be delighted to invite the hon. Member to join me for a tour of the PopUp Shop later this year.

For the financial years requested, the total net cost of House of Lords Catering and Retail Services, and that sum as a proportion of the resource budget of the House of Lords, was as follows:

The figures requested are set out below, plus (for the sake of completeness) those for the two remaining outlets. A positive contribution equates to “profit”, a negative contribution equates to “cost of subsidy”.

These figures have been calculated using a number of assumptions. Costs which are directly attributable to particular outlets have been allocated to those outlets. Some central costs have been split between each of the outlets, banqueting and retail services. Others are assigned to administration and kitchen central cost centres, whose combined contribution was -£549,179. Different assumptions could, of course, produce a different set of figures, but these have been used consistently for management information since April 2008.

My Department does not produce statistics on shop vacancy rates.

Office for National Statistics figures show that year-on-year retail sales were estimated to have increased by 0.3% in December 2012 compared with December 2011.

We hold regular discussions with industry through our Retail Policy Forum and representative organisations such as the British Retail Consortium about the state of the retail sector.

My Department does not produce statistics on shop vacancy rates.

The Government do not collect data on vacancy rates. Commercial organisations do track these and regularly publish figures.

The structure of retail in the UK is rapidly changing, with businesses responding to the way consumers want to shop. UK consumers are extremely savvy and now have many choices as to where and how to shop. Music retail is one area where this is particularly apparent. Over three quarters of music and video sales were online in 2012. Customers are also choosing to download or stream music instead of buying CDs.

I am obviously aware of the disappointing news about HMV. Administration is a worrying time for employees, their families, and for localities. In the event of redundancies, support is available from Jobcentre Plus. Its Rapid Response Service aims to address the impact of job losses on workers and on the local community by helping people move into new jobs as quickly as possible without the need to claim welfare benefits.

The Government does however recognise the vital role retail plays in national and local economies. This was why it was chosen to be one of the first sectors to be the subject of a Growth Review, and was the first theme chosen for the Red Tape Challenge. These initiatives identified a number of barriers to successful retail performance and growth, which Government is addressing.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has been working closely with industry to develop the BIS Retail Strategy (BRS). The strategy focuses on where there is potential for government to support retail growth in the short term at international, European, national and local levels.

We will be working closely with the first Retail Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Pathfinder to identify what can be done at local level to support retail; making the regulatory environment less burdensome by improving the enforcement regime; and developing a new approach to supporting the most successful retailers to invest overseas.

The Government also recognises the importance of the high street, and published its response to the Mary Portas Review last year. We have accepted nearly all of Mary's recommendations (27 out of 28) and will be going even further by offering a “Portas-Plus” package, designed to revive ailing high streets.

We have also delivered a number of measures to support high streets, which include:

Doubling small business rate relief (extended by a year in the autumn statement), and making it easier for small firms to claim. Over half a million businesses in England are expected to benefit, with about one third of a million of businesses paying no rates.

Focusing retail development in town centres and making it easier to convert empty offices into residential use.

Allowing councils to provide more town centre parking spaces.

Smaller retailers, including those in the music sector are also able to benefit from the same range of support offered by BIS to help other small and medium businesses to start and thrive: enabling better access to both debt and equity finance; reducing red tape; enabling SMEs to access more easily public procurement opportunities; and making sure that the support we provide SMEs is delivered in the most effective and efficient way possible.

I refer the hon. Member to my previous answer. This is a matter for StartUp Britain.

The pop-up shop at Eland house is operated by StartUp Britain, a not for profit company launched by the Prime Minister on 28 March 2011. Over the coming year, the shop will offer up to 150 entrepreneurs the chance to sell their British-made products over a two-week period. The tenant retailers will keep all of the profit from their sales, with any surplus rental income being recycled to fund pop-up shops elsewhere in the UK.

I would be delighted to invite the hon. Member to join me for a tour of the pop-up shop early this year.

Through the Government's response to the Portas review, published in March, we have set out a number of measures to support high streets in England, including those with high levels of empty shops. Measures include a £5.5 million support package for 27 Portas pilots (including Rotherham in Yorkshire) and over 300 town teams (including Barnsley metropolitan borough council and Wombwell Community Board); a £10 million High Street Innovation Fund for local authorities to tackle empty properties; and a £1 million Future High Street X-Fund to reward the most effective schemes for revitalising high streets. The autumn statement included a further one-year extension to the current temporary increase in small business rate relief, which will provide business rates relief to eligible ratepayers (generally ones that occupy only one property and have a rateable value below £12,000).

It is a matter for local areas to undertake an assessment of how these and other local actions impact on vacancy rates.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.

Letter from Glen Watson, dated October 2012:

As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how many shops have been empty in the Newton Abbot constituency in (a) each of the last five years and (b)the latest period for which figures are available, (125856)

We regret that ONS does not hold this information.

The relocation of the House of Lords gift shop over the Summer Recess cost £50,400.