FOI-2024-1754
You asked
This Freedom of Information request concerns the 'monthly Business Survey and annual business survey' sent to some small businesses, which businesses are obliged to complete at their own cost. Should businesses fail to comply they may incur a fine of up to £2,500.
Please provide statistics for each of the past twelve years.
For fines issued for non-compliance:
- the number of such fines issued
- the number of businesses taken to court over non compliance.
The average size of the fines.
For fines issued to businesses for providing incorrect or inaccurate data:
- the number of such fines issued
- the average size of the fines
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
Monthly Business Survey
Please note this is cumulative data relating to the last 12 years.
For fines issued for non-compliance:
The number of such fines issued - 24
The number of businesses taken to court over non-compliance - 24
The average size of the fines - £1,618
For fines issued to businesses for providing incorrect or inaccurate data:
The number of such fines issued - 0
The average size of the fines - 0
Annual Business Survey
Please note this is cumulative data relating to the past 12 years.
For fines issued for non-compliance:
The number of such fines issued - 4
The number of businesses taken to court over non-compliance - 4
The average size of the fines - £2,250
For fines issued to businesses for providing incorrect or inaccurate data:
The number of such fines issued - 0
The average size of the fines - 0
It should be noted that while the number of prosecutions in relation to number of businesses sampled is relatively small, enforcement is an iterative process i.e. we start with thousands of cases every year across many surveys, but during the course of our interactions with businesses this number dwindles to a relatively small core that end up in Court.