The Scottish Government

A National Statistics Publication for Scotland

SCOTTISH CORPORATE SECTOR STATISTICS 2009

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Business/Corporate

This publication provides statistics on Scotland's business stock in 2009. The tables include information on businesses' employment and turnover and are broken down into various groupings including industry, company size, local authority area, and country of ownership.

The main points are as follows:

• The total number of private sector enterprises in Scotland was 291,380 as at March 2009. A 3.3% increase since March 2008.
• Unregistered firms (the smallest firms that have an annual turnover below the VAT threshold and do not have employees) accounted for almost all of the rise in the total number of enterprises. The number of unregistered firms increased by 7.5%.
• The number of registered enterprises (those registered for VAT and/or PAYE) decreased by 0.2% - this was due to a marginal decrease in the number of small registered businesses.
• Total employment in private sector enterprises (registered and unregistered) was 2 million (2.2% increase over the year).
• Large enterprises (250+ employees) accounted for over 50% of the total increase in employment, with the total employment among small and medium firms also increasing over the period (2.2% and 1.4% respectively).
• Over the medium term (between 2000 and 2009), the total number of enterprises increased by 22.5% (over 50,000 enterprises).
• The number of small and medium enterprises ( SMEs) in Scotland was 289,065 as at March 2009. A 3.3% increase since March 2008. SMEs (0-249 employees) accounted for 99.2% of enterprises and 52.8% of employment.
• Registered enterprises with ultimate ownership outside Scotland accounted for 3.1% of businesses and 35.3% of employment. Within large firms (250+ employees) they accounted for 80.8% of businesses and 63.5% of employment.

Table 1: Number of Enterprises in Scotland

All the above figures exclude central and local government.

More information and a full set of tables can be found on the publication website at the following link:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Business/Corporate

Background Notes

1. The estimates have been constructed using data from the Inter Departmental Business Register (IDBR) maintained by the Office for National Statistics, the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the Family Resources Survey (FRS) and the Survey of Personal Incomes (SPI). The IDBR extract provides an estimate of the number of enterprises registered for VAT and/or PAYE. A procedure that combines data from the IDBR with estimates derived from the LFS, FRS and SPI is used to estimate the number of unregistered enterprises (see Methodology section of the publication website for further details).

2. Although the latest data are as at March 2009 - there are time lags associated with the estimates. The estimate of registered enterprises is based on a snapshot from the IDBR in March of each year (prior to 2005 the November snapshot was used). A count of the IDBR enterprises that were "live" at the snapshot date is achieved by referring to each enterprise's recorded start date and, where appropriate, its closure date. However, the reporting of these dates is subject to a number of time delays. Furthermore, the LFS data used to derive the count of unregistered enterprises covers the period April to March - the estimate of unregistered enterprises for 2009 is derived from LFS data from April 2008 to March 2009.

3. The estimates include enterprises that operate in Scotland irrespective of whether their head office is located in Scotland or elsewhere. Each enterprise is however only counted once in Scotland irrespective of the number of local business sites.

4. Enterprises are classified by employee size bands on the basis of the number of their total UK employees.

5. The number of enterprises with no employees (where the enterprise is owned and managed by the same individual(s)) which are not registered on the IDBR is estimated from a combination of surveys which are all subject to sampling error. For example a yearly estimate of 6,000 taken from the Labour Force Survey has a 95% confidence interval of +/- 2,640. It is the nature of sampling variability that the smaller the group whose size is being estimated, the proportionately less precise that estimate is. Very small estimates are subject to larger standard errors, which can result in fluctuation between years. For this reason year on year comparisons containing the smallest size band (enterprises with no employees) should be regarded with caution.

6. National Statistics are produced to high professional standards set out in the National Statistics Code of Practice. They undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure that they meet customer needs. They are produced free from any political interference.

Issued by:

Office of the Chief Economic Adviser

5 Atlantic Quay

150 Broomielaw

Glasgow

G2 8LU

Telephone
Communications Office: Stewart Cooper 0131-244-2175
Statistician: Marina Curran 0300-244-6813