FOI/202600500753 · FOI · unclear
Closure of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing businesses: FOI release
Information requested
How many farming businesses have closed in Scotland in the last 10 years (please can you break that up by year and region).
Response
The preferred source for data on business deaths is the annual Office for National Statistics (ONS) Business Demography series, the latest edition is available at: Business demography, UK - Office for National Statistics. Business deaths are a proxy for the number of businesses closed down. Business deaths are measured as businesses removed from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR), which is a database of all businesses registered for Value-Added-Tax (VAT) and/or Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) income tax. A business is removed from the IDBR if its turnover and employment are zero for several periods, or if the ONS is notified that the business has ceased trading through an administrative or survey source.
Note that the annual publication does not include data for the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing sector. However, business deaths for the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing sector are included as part of the quarterly ONS Business Demography series which runs from 2017 – these data for Scotland are provided in Table 1 below. We don’t have access to disaggregated data for Agriculture (or farms) specifically or for regions within Scotland.
It is important to note that the quarterly ONS Business Demography series is classed as official statistics in development. Official statistics in development are official statistics that are in the testing phase and are not yet fully developed, and will potentially have a wider degree of uncertainty. In particular, the last four quarters of the ONS series are provisional and are subject to future revision. Revisions can arise due to business reactivations as later information on business turnover or employment is received.
Table 1: Business Deaths – Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing – Scotland
Quarter Business Deaths Q1 2017 185 Q2 2017 180 Q3 2017 155 Q4 2017 125 Q1 2018 180 Q2 2018 190 Q3 2018 130 Q4 2018 180 Q1 2019 140 Q2 2019 270 Q3 2019 195 Q4 2019 170 Q1 2020 200 Q2 2020 200 Q3 2020 155 Q4 2020 175 Q1 2021 170 Q2 2021 195 Q3 2021 185 Q4 2021 190 Q1 2022 235 Q2 2022 280 Q3 2022 205 Q4 2022 210 Q1 2023 230 Q2 2023 225 Q3 2023 220 Q4 2023 160 Q1 2024 185 Q2 2024 195 Q3 2024 175 Q4 2024* 225 Q1 2025* 205 Q2 2025* 270 Q3 2025* 215
Source: Business Demography quarterly, Office for National Statistics Notes:
These are official statistics in development. *Quarters Q4 2024 to Q3 2025 are provisional and are subject to future revision. Data are rounded to the nearest five. Q1 is January to March, Q2 is April to June, Q3 is July to September and Q4 is October to December.
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