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Business births, deaths and survival rates – based on VAT/PAYE registrations and deregistrations - are produced by the Office for National Statistics within their Business Demography publications.

Table 1 below provides the business birth and death rates as a share of the active business population, for Scotland, for 2006 to 2015. Table 2 below provides the business birth and death rates per 10,000 adults, for Scotland, for 2006 to 2015. Table 3 below provides the available one-year to five-year survival rates for businesses born in 2006 onwards.

Note that the 2007 business birth figures were particularly affected by a change in the tax rules in April 2007 surrounding Managed Service Companies. In response to this change already established small businesses newly registered – this inflated the business birth figures for 2007.

Table 1 - Business birth and death rates as a share of the active business population, Scotland, 2006 to 2015

Table 2 - Business birth and death rates per 10,000 adults, Scotland, 2006 to 2015

Table 3 - Business survival rates per 10,000 adults, Scotland

Source: Businesses Demography, Office for National Statistics.

Information on whether someone has slept rough within the past three months is collected by local authorities when a homeless application is made.

The Scottish Government has been working with third sector organisations such as Glasgow Homelessness Network and partners to gather more robust data on those who are rough sleeping. This is so that we can ensure we are improving our responses to those who may have more complex needs but are not approaching or engaging with statutory services.

The number of inward investment projects in each identified growth sector over the past five years, as recorded by Scottish Development International, is set out in the following table:

The number of VAT and/or PAYE registered enterprises, for 2007 to 2016, in Scotland are provided in the table below. Note that these figures refer to all registered enterprises operating in Scotland regardless of where the enterprise is based.

Number of registered enterprises in Scotland, 2007-2016:

Source: Businesses in Scotland 2016, Scottish Government.

Note:

1. These figures exclude enterprises classified as both central or local government.

Official regional labour market statistics produced by ONS are only available for rolling three month periods, rather than individual months.

Data from the ONS’ Labour Force Survey for the quarter ending March 2017 shows that the economic inactivity rate in Scotland during this period was 22.5 per cent. The economic inactivity rate for the UK over the same period was 21.5 per cent.

Trade envoys are yet to be appointed. There have not been any previous Scottish Government trade envoys.

Plans to establish the Berlin Hub are currently in development and details will be made available in due course.

The Scottish Government has had a presence in Brussels since 1999 and the work on developing the Innovation and Investment Hub, building on the current operation, is continuing and will be operational in the Autumn of 2017.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-09364 on 27 June 2017. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Network Rail is responsible for managing the delivery of its business, including the deployment of its staff, their terms and conditions and how it contracts for services, and this MITIE contract was procured by Network Rail HQ in Milton Keynes as part of a larger contract. As a UK Government body in receipt of public funding in Scotland, we have a clear expectation that Network Rail will comply with all appropriate statutory policies, guidance and legislation in line with public sector best practice.

I am meeting the RMT to discuss this issue.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-09364 on 27 June 2017. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.