Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many businesses in England were registered as agricultural businesses in each of the last five years.

Numbers of agricultural businesses registered for either VAT and/or PAYE in England are provided in the table below.

These estimates are drawn from the ONS publication ‘UK Business: activity, size and location', which provides information on the number of active VAT and/or PAYE registered businesses in the UK. Any smaller non-employing businesses that are not registered for VAT will not be included. This publication is available at:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/bus-register/uk-business/index.html

1. The figures are based on all VAT/PAYE registered businesses in the SIC industrial classification sector ‘01 Crop and animal production, hunting and related service activities.

2. A small number of businesses were not included on the Inter Departmental Business Register before 2012; the effect at this level of detail is not known but the statistics given here for 2009 to 2011 may be slightly lower than if those businesses had been included.