Simon Kirby – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Simon Kirby on 2014-04-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many social enterprises there were in Brighton, Kemptown constituency in the most recent period for which figures are available.

Jenny Willott

BIS does not have constituency level data on social enterprises. Using data from the 2012 BIS ‘Small Business Survey’ and the ‘Business Population Estimates for the UK and Regions 2013′, BIS estimate that in 2013 approximately five per cent (or 60,000) of small and medium-sized enterprise employers[1] in the UK were social enterprises[2]. It is not possible to provide reliable information for smaller geographical areas.

[1] Small and medium-sized employers with between 1 and 249 employees.

[2] Defined as an enterprise that considers itself a social enterprise and that should not pay more than 50 per cent of profit or surplus to owners or shareholders, should not generate more than 25 per cent of income from grants and donations and, therefore, should not have less than 75 per cent of turnover from trading.