BIS fast facts
Highlighting a selection of interesting and memorable facts about British industry and the work of BIS.
- Over 36,000 businesses have had a Business Link health check, which provides free personalised support and advice to small businesses, in the six months since launch.
- Regional Development Agencies have created or safeguarded over 600,000 jobs since 2002.
- An independent report has shown that every pound invested in the Regional Development Agencies generates at least £4.50 for the regional economy.
- Solutions for Business has simplified 3,000 publicly-funded support schemes to around 30, to help business get the help it needs.
- The Manufacturing Advisory Service, which helps small and medium sized UK manufacturers to improve productivity and competitiveness, has added £770 million of value in six years.
- UK Trade & Investment helped a record 20,700 businesses to generate £3.6 billion in additional profit in the past 12 months.
- For every £1 spent by UK Trade & Investment, £15 is generated for the UK economy.
- BIS’s Stop Loan Sharks teams have supported more than 7,000 victims of illegal money lenders since 2004, saving around £14 million for consumers locked in illegal deals.
- A face-to-face debt advice service funded by BIS through 500 debt advisers has so far helped over 200,000 people.
- Last year, nearly £4 million in arrears was recovered for over 19,000 workers who had complained of being paid less than the minimum wage.
- Around 450,000 tonnes of electrical items were reused or recycled in 2008 thanks to regulations introduced by BIS.
- 2.4 million smoke alarms funded by BIS have been distributed by Fire and Rescue Services to vulnerable people in England in the past year.
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- Improved regulation is saving UK businesses, charities and the public sector money, with £1.9 billion saved so far due to reduced administrative burdens.
- Government is on track to achieve its target of reducing the administrative burdens faced by businesses, charities and the public sector by 25 per cent by 2010 – saving £3.4 billion each year.
- The UK has one of the most competitive regimes in the world, with the Global Competition Review survey giving the Competition Commission a five-star rating and the Office of Fair Trading four stars.
- The World Bank ranks Britain sixth in the world and second in Europe for ease of doing business.
- Through intensive lobbying and cooperation with Member States, the UK helped bring about a commitment by EU Heads of Government to cut red tape resulting from EU law by 25 per cent by 2012.
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- The digital information and communications sector is worth around eight per cent of the UK’s GDP.
- By 2012, £1 in every £5 of new commerce will be online.
- The UK is the sixth largest manufacturer in the world by output, and manufacturing contributes £150 billion a year to the economy.
- Six out of the top 10 global vehicle makers and 19 of the top 20 auto parts makers have a UK manufacturing presence.
- The UK low carbon goods and environmental goods and services sector is already the sixth largest in the world and is worth £107 billion.
- The UK’s low carbon sector employs over 880,000 people including the supply chain, and an additional 400,000 jobs could be created in the next decade.
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- Between 3 and 3.5 million UK jobs are linked both directly and indirectly with the country’s trade with the European Union.
- The UK is the number one location in Europe for Foreign Direct Investment.
- The European Union is the largest single market in the world, with a population of almost 500 million and combined output of over $14 trillion.
- The European Union is the UK’s most important trading partner, accounting for just over half of total UK trade.
- In 2007, total exports in the UK’s engineering sector amounted to some £109 billion – one third of total UK exports.
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- BIS runs the Business Council for Britain, a group of industry leaders with a combined board experience of nearly 250 years that advises the Government on business and enterprise.
- The 26 Government-owned businesses advised or managed by the Shareholder Executive have a combined turnover of £24 billion, equivalent to approximately 1.8 per cent of UK GDP.
- Companies House has more than 76 million documents on its image database and the number of company searches made by the public each year exceeds 5.2 million.
- 120 companies register with Companies House every hour.
- Six out of 10 Formula 1 teams are located in the UK and the UK motor sport industry contributes over £5 billion a year to the UK economy.
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