Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will estimate the proportion of the working population in Southampton which was working in small retail outlets over the last three years.

Anna Soubry

Official statistics are not sufficiently detailed to answer this question directly. However a rough estimate may be possible by combining sources.

The ONS Business Registers and Employment Survey shows that the retail sector accounted for 10 – 11% of employment in Southampton in each year between 2012 and 2014.

Furthermore BIS Business Population Estimates suggest that across the UK as a whole small firms (those below 50 employees) account for around 29% of employment in the retail sector.

Applying this assumption we could estimate that small retailers accounted for around 3% of employment in Southampton in 2012-2014.