Business Register Outputs in Support of Regional Policy

1. Business Register Outputs in Support of Regional Policy John Perry UK Office for National Statistics

2. The Projects • Enhanced outputs for regional accounts and other regional enterprise statistics, in support of the Review of Statistics for Economic Policymaking (Allsopp Review) • Provision of small area outputs, in support of the UK government Neighbourhood Statistics Programme

4. The Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR)

5. Existing Sources Current coverage of enterprises • VAT Traders • PAYE Tax Employers • Supported by: • Companies House registrations • Dun and Bradstreet linkage • ONS and other statistical surveys Extending coverage of enterprises • From Companies House • Identifying those without VAT or PAYE registration • Evaluating to see which should be on the IDBR • Establishing rules for adding

6. Improving quality • Boost for the Business Register Survey for small enterprises • Extended business profiling • Merged the Business Register Survey with the employment collection within the Structural Business Survey • Developing a replacement Business Register and Employment Survey • Better local unit employment estimates • Local turnover estimates (subject to a successful pilot in 2007)

7. Existing Outputs • Survey samples and survey populations • Lists of businesses - confidential • Publications • UK Businesses on National Statistics website • Business demography on DTI website • Tabulations to user specifications, including disclosive figures

8. New Outputs • Small area tables for enterprises and local units on the Neighbourhood Statistics web site: • Based on 2001 Population Census output areas • 6 tables in 2004 • 19 in 2005 • New tables for “UK Business” publication • Parliamentary Constituencies • More local unit tables • New tools for presentation • Interactive charts • Interactive maps

11. New Sources • Corporation Tax • Link to Company Annual Accounts • Needs new legal gateway • Good indicator of trading businesses • Range of accounting variables • Potential for reducing compliance • Yell • Commercial Source • Good source for business telephone numbers • Difficult to use to extend coverage • Data sharing require some care

12. The Regions

13. Working with the regions • ONS appointed statisticians in the English regions in April 2007 • Co-located with the Regional Development Agencies (RDA) • RDA responsible for economic development • Work done to establish the statistical requirements • Training needed in use of the business register

14. Regional data requirements • Monitor turnover and employment changes in their areas • Create clusters of businesses to monitor performance • Monitor businesses receiving assistance against other businesses • Work with local planning authorities • Provide feedback on business register quality based on local knowledge

15. Legal Framework • Data access limited by current legislation • Statistical use of disclosive and micro data permitted by: • Government departments – including the ONS regional statisticians • Local authorities • Some other public bodies • Government contractors • Not RDA’s

16. Improving access • Statistics and Registration Bill to create an independent ONS • Has provisions to enable wider data sharing with public bodies • But requires secondary legislation to implement • Follows the April 2008 creation of independent ONS • In the interim, ONS regional statisticians will be an important channel for dissemination of disclosure-free outputs

17. Benefits • Quality improvement (extended coverage, better surveys and more focus to business profiling) • More small area outputs • Improved support for regional customers