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Bob Spink: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how much funding his Department and its predecessors allocated to the development of information technology businesses in (a) Essex and (b) Castle Point in each of the last five years. [282147]


14 Sep 2009 : Column 2178W

Mr. Lammy: EEDA funds a range of regional services to support businesses from all sectors across the region. This includes the regional Business Link service, specialised support schemes and Business Finance grants for eligible businesses.

While all of these services are available to support IT businesses across the region, EEDA does not specifically allocate money by sector or area.

Where possible, direct grants to IT businesses in Essex and Castle Point have been identified:

EEDA business finance grants-Grants to help businesses prove their market or expand their business and a range of loans to support business growth. Since April 2007, EEDA has provided £151,483 to IT businesses in Essex(1).

TakeITon-Campaign to assist businesses to improve their use of IT, focused on helping SMEs save costs through IT. This EEDA programme started in November 2007. Since then, it has provided £750,678 to help businesses make better use of IT in the region. Within this, £76,561 was provided to IT businesses in the region.

Of this, £4,572 was directly to IT businesses in Essex(2).

Business Link East-EEDA has funded the regional Business Link service since 1 April 2007 which supports businesses from all sectors. Since assuming management of the service, Business Link East has interacted with 41,790 businesses in Essex, of which 1,612 are in Castle Point.

Business: Insurance

Lorely Burt: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (1) how many applications have been (a) received and (b) approved under the trade credit insurance top-up scheme in each month since the scheme was introduced; [290841]

(2) how much cover has been (a) requested and (b) approved under the trade credit insurance top-up scheme in each month since the scheme was introduced. [290844]

Ian Lucas [holding answer 9 September 2009]: As of 28 August there have been 59 approved applications to a value of £8,429,865 broken down as follows:

 Number of policies accepted Value of policies (£)

May

11

633,000

June

8

1,155,000

July

26

4,476,000

To 28 August

14

2,165,365


31 applications to a value of £1,915,210 have been rejected by the Trade Credit Insurers as being ineligible under the scheme rules. It is not possible to analyse these by month.


14 Sep 2009 : Column 2179W

Lorely Burt: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many applications made under the trade credit insurance top up scheme from businesses with an annual turnover of (a) less than £5 million, (b) between £5 and £10 million, (c) between £10 million and £25 million, (d) between £25 and £50 million, (e) between £50 and £100 million and (f) more than £100 million have been (i) accepted and (ii) rejected since the establishment of the scheme. [290842]

Ian Lucas [holding answer 9 September 2009]: The scheme is administered by four trade credit insurance companies, who collect a range of information on the Department's behalf. The information on acceptances and rejections does not disaggregate applicants by turnover.

As of 28 August, 59 applications have been accepted and 31 rejected.

Lorely Burt: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many applications made under the trade credit insurance top up scheme have been rejected because applicants were seeking (a) cover in excess of the scheme's value criteria, (b) to replace withdrawn insurance rather than top up existing insurance arrangements, (c) to insure export business and (d) to replace cover reduced prior to October 2008. [290843]

Ian Lucas [holding answer 9 September 2009]: The scheme is administered by the four trade credit insurers, who determine whether applications meet the eligibility criteria in accordance with scheme rules. As of 28 August,
14 Sep 2009 : Column 2180W
31 applications have been rejected. Of these: (a) none was seeking cover in excess of the scheme's value criteria, (b) four were seeking to replace withdrawn insurance rather than top up existing insurance arrangements, (c) none was seeking to cover export business and (d) none was seeking to replace cover reduced prior to October 2008.

Business: Kent

Mr. Howard: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what the (a) rate and (b) percentage of business failure in Folkestone and Hythe constituency has been in each quarter since January 2005. [290871]

Ian Lucas [holding answer 9 September 2009]: When a failed incorporated business enters into an insolvency procedure it is counted in the official insolvency statistics. However, corporate insolvency figures are not currently available at a sub-national level.

Table 1 gives the numbers of corporate insolvencies, by type of procedure, in England and Wales as a whole for the period requested.

Bankruptcies among self-employed individuals are not routinely collated at constituency level, and the population figures from which a bankruptcy rate may be calculated are not readily available below local authority level.

Table 2 gives the number of bankruptcies among traders in England and Wales as a whole for the period requested.


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14 Sep 2009 : Column 2182W
Table 1

 Compulsory liquidations Creditors' voluntary liquidations( 1) Receivership appointments( 2) Administration( 3) Company voluntary arrangements

2005

Q1

1,101

1,909

114

489

179

Q2

1,422

1,985

167

572

183

Q3

1,454

1,852

170

620

130

Q4

1,256

1,914

139

580

112

2006

Q1

1,473

2,091

180

753

124

Q2

1,263

1,972

153

653

147

Q3

1,286

1,886

93

675

157

Q4

1,396

1,770

162

1,479

106

2007

Q1

1,384

1,890

88

684

96

Q2

1,399

1,792

77

585

102

Q3

1,234

1,879

80

668

129

Q4

1,148

1,781

92

575

91

2008

Q1

1,080

2,182

159

859

140

Q2

1,410

2,279

177

938

131

Q3

1,467

2,592

270

1,007

167

Q4

1,537

2,988

261

2,018

149

2009

Q1

1,555

3,555

316

1,311

156

Q2(4)

1,520

3,539

345

1,027

157

(1) Excludes creditors' voluntary liquidations which follow administration.
(2) Includes Law of Property Act receiverships. Receivership figures between Q1 2007 and Q1 2008 were previously revised to remove duplication, and are not consistent with those for the earlier period.
(3) Includes administrator appointments and administrations under the Enterprise Act 2002.
(4) Provisional.
Note:
It should be noted that it is possible for a company to enter into more than one procedure during the course of its insolvency. Apart from for the creditors' voluntary liquidation figures (following administration) shown, these procedures will be double counted. Therefore it is not valid to sum all insolvency procedures together and calculate a percentage of insolvent businesses, as to do this would count some companies more than once.

Table 2

 Bankruptcies among traders( 1)

2005

Q1

2,446

Q2

2,835

Q3

2,850

Q4

2,708

2006

Q1

3,150

Q2

2,898

Q3

2,990

Q4

1,856

2007

Q1

1,981

Q2

1,767

Q3

1,660

Q4

1,650

2008

Q1

1,915

Q2

1,828

Q3

2,115

Q4

2,325

2009

Q1

2,798

Q2

n/a

n/a = Not yet available.
(1) The Insolvency Trade Classification (ITC) was used to classify trading-related bankruptcies (and company liquidations) until end September 2006. From October 2006 the Standard Industry Classification 2003 has been in use and there have been associated changes to the method used to identify traders among bankrupts. The period covered should not, therefore, be treated as a consistent time series.
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