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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate she has made of the number of small to medium-sized enterprises that have closed down since (a) January 2022, and (b) January 2020.

From January 2022 until the end of June 2022 there were an estimated total of 251,000 registered business closures[1]. This compares with 276,000 between January and June 2021, 176,000 between January and June 2020 and 178,0000 between January and June 2019[2].

From January 2020 until the end of June 2022 there were an estimated total of 1,004,000 registered business closures[3]. The corresponding figure for between January 2017 and June 2019 is 833,000[4].

Data is not available to estimate the number of closures for Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) specifically, however, given 99.9% of registered businesses are SMEs[5], it is likely that the total number of registered business closures is very close to the total number of SME closures.

[1] ONS Business demography, quarterly experimental statistics

[2] ONS Business demography, quarterly experimental statistics

[3] ONS Business demography, quarterly experimental statistics

[4] UK business; activity, size and location Statistical bulletins

[5] BEIS Business population estimates, 2021