ISSUES
: Business and Trade
40
Key facts
Key facts
Ö
Ö
In 2015, there were 5.4 million businesses in the
UK. (page 1)
Ö
Ö
In 2015, over 99% of businesses are small or
medium sized businesses – employing 0–249
people. (page 1)
Ö
Ö
In 2015, 5.1 million (95%) businesses were micro-
businesses – employing 0-9 people. Micro-
businesses accounted for 33% of employment
and 18% of turnover. (page 1)
Ö
Ö
There were 351,000 business births and 246,000
business deaths in 2014. (page 1)
Ö
Ö
In 2015, there were 5.4 million private sector
businesses in the UK, up by 146,000 or 3% since
2014. (page 1)
Ö
Ö
In 2015 there were 4.0 million businesses in the
service industries, three quarters of all businesses
in the UK. The biggest of the service industries
in terms of the number of businesses was the
professional, scientific and technical industry which
accounted for 15% of businesses. The retail sector
accounted for 10% of all businesses. (page 1)
Ö
Ö
In 2014, 20% of SMEs in the UK were majority led
by women. This is two percentage points higher
than in 2012 and equates to around 1.1 million
SMEs. (page 2)
Ö
Ö
In 2013 to 2014, central government spent an
unprecedented £11.4 billion with small and
medium-sized businesses – those employing 250
employees or less. This is equivalent to 26% of
central government spend. (page 3)
Ö
Ö
Britain saw a 51% increase in new businesses from
385,741 in 2010 to 581,173 in 2014. This compares
to an 11% increase in the US, 7% in Japan, 40% in
Germany and 39% in France. (page 5)
Ö
Ö
An entrepreneur in the UK can now start a company
in the UK in less than five days, compared to the
global average of 20. (page 5)
Ö
Ö
88% of graduates have considered freelancing or
being self-employed. (page 6)
Ö
Ö
In the 2012–13 academic year, universities and
higher education institutions supported the
creation of more than 3,500 start-ups by their
recent graduates. This brought the total of
active graduate companies created in the last 13
years to 8,127, employing 15,588 staff, receiving
investments totalling £28.5 million and having a
combined turnover in 2012–13 of £376 million.
(page 7)
Ö
Ö
Based on the 20,673 registered students, Tenner
was mostly endorsed in the South East, South
West, North West, West Midlands and London.
Together, these regions accounted for half of all
students (64%). (page 10)
Ö
Ö
The bank reckons family-owned businesses
generated revenues of £540 billion last year and
that this figure is set to hit £661 billion by 2018.
(page 18)
Ö
Ö
According to latest statistics, the business
creation rate has risen by 55% since 2000.
Yet the proportion of enterprises that have
employees has actually fallen from a third to a
quarter, while the proportion of those with no
employees has risen. This means that a lot of
the entrepreneurship ‘success’ that we hear
about is actually represented by a 73% rise in
the number of people who have become self-
employed. (page 22)
Ö
Ö
Estimates suggest up to 25,000 people died and
more than 550,000 people were injured, some
seriously and permanently, after a gas leak
incident at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in
Bhopal, India, in 1984. (page 23)
Ö
Ö
Toyota, the Japanese car giant, agreed to pay
out around $1.1 billion in late 2012 to settle a
class action lawsuit stemming from complaints
of unintended acceleration in its vehicles.
(page 24)
Ö
Ö
Although 55% of the company bosses surveyed
by the CMA knew price-fixing was illegal, 27%
were unsure whether it was acceptable to agree
prices with rivals, 23% thought it was “okay
to discuss prospective bids with competing
bidders” and 29% were not aware whether bid-
rigging was illegal. (page 31)
Ö
Ö
27% of companies said they would complain
to a contract awarder if they felt they had lost
out due to corruption, compared to just 8%
of respondents in 2006. In 2006, only 6.5% of
respondents said they would appeal to law-
enforcement authorities, compared with 19% in
2015, with 24% of respondents now saying they
would try to gather evidence for legal action.
(page 32)
Ö
Ö
In 2014, taxi firm Uber paid just £22,134
corporation tax despite making £866,302 profit.
(page 34)
