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16 Mar 2010 : Column 845W

Non-profit Making Associations

Margaret Moran: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will list for each regional development agency (RDA) the total amount spent on (a) start-up and (b) support in respect of social enterprises in each of the last five years; and what percentage of each RDA budget this represented in each such year. [314860]

Ms Rosie Winterton: RDAs recognise the value that social enterprises (SEs) bring as businesses providing significant economic benefits to regions while delivering social benefits and/or enhancing the environment.

RDAs have various investment routes for supporting SEs, including funding through the social enterprise networks, direct investment into SEs, provision of social enterprise grants/voucher schemes, and development of mentoring schemes. From 2007/08, the Office of the Third Sector (OTS) has funded a four year programme to enable each of the nine RDAs to develop SE support across the country.

The RDAs also deliver support for start-up and existing SEs through the Business Link service and regional Solutions for Business products, which are open and accessible to all businesses. To filter the information to obtain the 'type' of organisation that has received mainstream business support would incur disproportionate cost and as such the following data relate only to the support provided through projects and investments specifically directed at SEs. The RDAs expenditure on social enterprise start-ups cannot be separated from the support provided to established SEs.

Total amount spent on support of social enterprises
£000
RDA 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09

AWM(1)

42

245

121

826

1,274

EEDA

62

170

283

1,066

3,354

EMDA

2,286

4,413

3,385

2,569

2,812

LDA(2)

n/a

n/a

n/a

476

740

NWDA(3)

1,530

1,714

2,931

1,919

917

ONE

172

200

190

247

326

SEEDA(4)

n/a

158

179

231

758

SWRDA

288

245

520

736

974

YF(5)

n/a

n/a

2,189

3,789

5,139

(1) AWM: The figures are conservative estimates as data prior to 2007/08 do not include Business Link activity. Neither Business Link nor Social Enterprise West Midlands collected the requested data prior to April 2007.
(2) LDA: Where figures are unavailable, this is because there was no funding directly attributable to supporting the social enterprise sector. However, there may have been funding for the sector in these years within mainstream LDA programmes which cannot be disaggregated.
(3) NWDA: Business Link figures can not be provided prior to 2007/08, when their current provider began delivering the project.
(4) SEEDA: Prior to 2005/06, Business Link was not managed by SEEDA and figures are not available.
(5) YF: Did not hold the Business Link contract before 2006-07. YF are unable to provide figures for the funding that Business Link assigned to social enterprise support.

Margaret Moran: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many social enterprises were (a) established in and (b) assisted by each regional development agency in each of the last five years. [314861]

Ms Rosie Winterton: RDAs recognise the value that social enterprises (SEs) bring as businesses providing significant economic benefits to regions whilst delivering social benefits and/or enhancing the environment.


16 Mar 2010 : Column 846W

RDAs have various investment routes for supporting SEs, including funding through the social enterprise networks, direct investment into SEs, provision of social enterprise grants/voucher schemes, and development of mentoring schemes. From 2007/08, the Office of the Third Sector (OTS) has funded a four year programme to enable each of the nine RDAs to develop SE support across the country.

In addition, RDAs also deliver support for start-up and existing SEs through the Business Link service and regional Solutions for Business products, which are open and accessible to all businesses. As such, it is not always possible to differentiate between the start up and support of SEs from that of other businesses. Only projects that directly support or invest in SEs are reflected in the following data. In addition, it is not always possible for RDAs to disaggregate between SE start-ups and other SE support.

The RDAs are only able to provide data on the number of social enterprises established over the past five years that have had direct contact with the RDAs.


16 Mar 2010 : Column 847W
RDA Year Total number of social enterprises established Total number of social enterprises assisted

AWM(1)

2004-05

-

5

2005-06

-

14

2006-07

-

9

2007-08

-

640

2008-09

-

540

EEDA(2)

2004-05

-

107

2005-06

-

114

2006-07

-

119

2007-08

-

215

2008-09

-

330

EMDA(3)

2004-05

-

-

2005-06

7

407

2006-07

1

1,045

2007-08

31

523

2008-09

83

1,038

LDA(4)

2004-05

-

-

2005-06

-

-

2006-07

-

-

2007-08

-

498

2008-09

-

1,980

NWDA(5)

2004-05

134

-

2005-06

54

-

2006-07

60

-

2007-08

57

108

2008-09

49

610

ONE(6)

2004-05

4

10

2005-06

3

0

2006-07

8

72

2007-08

69

561

2008-09

181

488

SEEDA(7)

2004-05

-

-

2005-06

-

-

2006-07

-

-

2007-08

5

214

2008-09

322

1,370

SWRDA(8)

2004-05

-

1

2005-06

-

1

2006-07

-

1

2007-08

52

950

2008-09

44

1,095

YF(9)

2004-05

66

143

2005-06

57

180

2006-07

48

554

2007-08

12

617

2008-09

110

1,221

(1) AWM: The figures are conservative estimates as data prior to 2007/08 do not include Business Link (BL) activity. Neither BL nor Social Enterprise West Midlands collected the requested data prior to April 2007.
(2) EEDA: EEDA is unable to disaggregate between 'established' and 'start-up' businesses. As such, the data provided refer to the total number of SEs assisted over the past five years.
(3) EMDA: Data are unavailable for 2004/05 as this is prior to the introduction of the nationally agreed Tasking Framework.
(4) LDA: Where figures are unavailable this is because there was no funding directly attributable to supporting the social enterprise sector. However, there may have been funding for the sector in these years within mainstream LDA programmes which cannot be disaggregated.
(5) NWDA: Prior to 2007/08, the number of social enterprises assisted was not recorded separately on the tasking framework. Data provided for 2007/08 and 2008/09 are the combined outputs of NWDA and Business Link NW. BL NW was established in April 2007.
(6) ONE: Figures prior to 2007/08 do not include BL services and therefore do not reflect the true figure of total number of SEs established and/or assisted. ONE is unable to provide BL figures prior to 2007/08 when their current provider began delivering the project.
(7) SEEDA: Business Link was not managed by SEEDA in 2004/05, and although SEEDA did manage BL in 2005/06 and 2006/07 the data required was not recorded. The new BL contract came into force on 1 April 2007 and from then reporting requirements changed.
(8) SWRDA: The South West RDA supports the regional social enterprise network, and the numbers recorded relate to the regional social enterprise network and to the support provided through BL providers. The South West RDA does not collect data on individual social enterprises supported. Contracts with our current BL providers started in 2007, so data for BL assisted businesses is not available before this.
(9) YF: Figures provided before 2008/09 do not include beneficiary data from BL as this predates the current BL provider. The figures provided for 2008/09 have not compared beneficiary data collected by BL and YF separately as this would incur disproportionate cost.
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