You asked
I'm having great difficulty finding a precise number for the number of black owned businesses in the capital.
Can you please provide me with this information please?
We said
Thank you for your request.
Unfortunately, we have not undertaken the specific analysis requested. In order to fulfil this request, we would need to create a bespoke analysis. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Public Authorities are not obligated to create information in order to respond to requests. We therefore consider this to be information not held.
The requested information can be obtained from the customer services team of ONS Social Services division. This team provides an ad hoc analysis service, including - of relevance in this instance - tabulations of Labour force (LFS) and Annual Population Survey (APS) data, both of which contain question variables relating to ethnicity, owning your own business and geography (in this case London). This service is subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs, where appropriate.
Details of the variables included in these datasets can be viewed in the LFS User Guides https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/methodologies/labourforcesurveyuserguidance
If you would like to enquire about our service then please contact socialsurveys@ons.gov.uk
If you are able to do your own cross-tabulations you could purchase an anonymised LFS or APS dataset from the UK Data Service. Details on costs and how to download the data can be found on their website:
Advice for commercial users - http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/get-data/how-to-access/registration.aspx#/tab-commercial-users
Charges - http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/get-data/how-to-access/charges.aspx
You may also find the following information helpful:
The Race Disparity Unit publishes facts and figures on ethnicity including leadership of small and medium enterprises, though unfortunately not at regional geographies: https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/workforce-and-business/business/leadership-of-small-and-medium-enterprises/latest. Their data is taken from the Small Business Survey run by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. You may find further information published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/small-business-survey-reports.
Companies House make publicly available details of companies and their owners for free: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/companies-house.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Business Owners may be able to support your request. The secretariat is led by diana@chrouchconsulting.co.uk.
Two recent reviews may be of assistance; the McGregor-Smith review of race in the workplace (2017, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/race-in-the-workplace-the-mcgregor-smith-review); and the Parker review of ethnic diversity of UK boards (2016 and updated in 2020, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ethnic-diversity-of-uk-boards-the-parker-review)