Response to paper by Alexander Dow and Catherine Kirk "The number of Scottish businesses and economic policy"

The figures in the paper by Alexander Dow and Catherine Kirk are indeed a disappointment. They reflect the serious debate on Scotland's progress towards the Business Birth Rate Strategy's objectives that began after we published our own "Five Years On" report on the Strategy's progress in 1998. The debate became more pronounced this year with the publication of the 1999 year-end New Business Statistic (based on data from the Scottish clearing banks) which showed a marked drop in the number of starts - at a time when the economy overall seemed to be quite healthy.