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Innovation Funding
Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will provide a regional breakdown of innovation funding in the UK. [23975]
Ms Hewitt: My Department's innovation programme expenditure is primarily providing support to industry UK-wide. In the financial year 2001–02, £340 million was allocated to this support. It would be a disproportionate cost to ascertain the regional breakdown of this expenditure. Moreover in many instances mapping the immediate recipient of the support would not give a reliable guide to the ultimate distribution of the benefit.
The only funding currently allocated by my Department on a regional basis that contributes to the DTI's innovation agenda is the Regional Innovation Fund (RIF), which was established on 1 April 2001.
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RIF provides a funding stream to the nine English Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) to enable them to support regional competitiveness, innovation and enterprise, and to support cluster development and business incubation in their regions. A breakdown of my Department's 2001–02 RIF allocation of £54.1 million to the RDAs is as follows:
| RDA | £ million |
|---|---|
| One North East | 8.9 |
| North West Development Agency | 7.4 |
| Yorkshire Forward | 10.0 |
| East Midlands Development Agency (emda) | 4.3 |
| Advantage West Midlands | 6.3 |
| East of England Development Agency | 3.5 |
| SEEDA | 3.2 |
| South West of England Regional Development Agency | 4.7 |
| London Development Agency | 5.8 |
Female Entrepreneurs
Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what action she is taking (a) to promote female entrepreneurs and (b) to create an enterprise environment that supports both men and women. [23973]
Ms Hewitt: The Government's priority on coming to office in 1997 was economic stability and employment. The economic challenge for the second term is enterprise and productivity.
The Government are promoting enterprise through:
- stable macroeconomic conditions, sound public finances and low inflation
improving the tax regime, by introducing new measures to help small businesses grow, including simplifying VAT for half a million small firms and extension of the 10p corporation tax rate
radical rethink of the UK competition regime.
SBS's services are available to both male and female entrepreneurs in England, through the Business Link network, which provides local advice and support to all entrepreneurs on everything needed to start and grow a business. Business Connect delivers a similar service in Wales.
Women who are thinking of setting up or who are already running their own businesses are able to make use of the full range of services provided by SBS through the Business Link operators.
In addition, SBS has set up the Phoenix Fund to encourage entrepreneurship in disadvantaged areas and within groups which are currently under-represented in terms of business ownership (including women). The Phoenix Fund as a whole is worth £100 million over the four financial years from 2000–04. 16 projects specifically target the needs of women. The National Assembly for Wales has a separate budget to promote female entrepreneurs.
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The SBS is working to research and better understand the needs of women entrepreneurs and tackle any specific barriers that they may face in starting and running their own businesses.
Anti-competitive Behaviour
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many anti-competitive behaviour cases are being investigated by the Office of Fair Trading. [10136]
Miss Melanie Johnson: Under UK competition legislation, responsibility for monitoring markets and considering allegations of anti-competitive behaviour is a matter for the Director General of Fair Trading. I have asked the Director General to write to the hon. Member directly.
Small Business Service
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Small Business Service in assisting the establishment of new companies. [11849]
Nigel Griffiths: The SBS delivers a range of support to start-up businesses through the Business Link network and manages a number of specific initiatives. All SBS services are subject to regular and rigorous evaluation.
In Quarter One (April-June) this year, the Business Link network helped around 30,000 individuals and start-up businesses including 2,000 high-growth start-ups.
An early assessment of the high-growth start-up initiative was completed in December 2000. This showed that:
- the initiative had already had a positive effect in developing a targeted approach to working with high-growth start-ups;
considerable progress had been made in developing understanding of local markets and developing local/regional service offers;
funding should be rolled forward to enable more detailed evaluation;
support is being provided, across a variety of business sectors, to people who are traditionally considered to face barriers in starting and growing a business including women, ethnic minorities and young entrepreneurs. A full evaluation of this initiative has just commenced.
- business mentoring plays an important role within the business support process. It provides the client with an on-going business relationship and a route to identifying and progressing entrepreneurial development needs. This is essential to SME development, especially at the pre and early start-up phase;
clients were impressed with the quality of the volunteers and that mentoring could make a difference to their business;
mentors were confident that they could make a difference to the businesses they were supporting;
the National Federation of Enterprise Agencies, who co-ordinate the delivery of the BVMA initiative, were confident that the scheme could make a significant contribution to support services for pre and early start businesses.
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A full evaluation of all Business Link services, including those for start-ups, is planned for 2002.
The SBS is also monitoring the wider environment in which businesses start through its "Think Small First" indicators which will be published annually.
Business Links
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what is the funding of Business Links by area in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. [11848]
Nigel Griffiths: Business Links exist and operate only in England. There are 45 Business Link operators, appointed by the Small Business Service (SBS), operating in 45 designated areas throughout England.
Business Link operators receive a grant from SBS in the form of a Core Services allocation, which funds the core business support services that the BL operator is obliged to deliver under the terms of their agreement. Other funding is provided by the SBS to deliver specialist services like the UK Online for Business, Local Partnership Fund and High Growth Start-ups programmes, these funds are allocated at regional level.
The table provides a breakdown of Core Services allocations to BL operators by SBS area for the 2001–02 financial year.
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