Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the proceedings of the Sixth Delegated Legislation Committee of 21 November 2017, how many businesses will fall (a) within and (b) outside the remit of the Small Business Commission.

This question was answered on 27th November 2017

Any business can use the information and guidance provided by the Office of the Small Business Commissioner. For the complaints service, the specifications are set out in the Small Business Commissioner (Scope and Scheme) 2017 regulations, under which businesses with fewer than 50 employees will be eligible to submit a complaint.

According to data on business population estimates published by the Department in October 2016, 99.3% of the 5.5 million private sector businesses were small businesses and 99.9% were small or medium-sized (SMEs).