Small Business Survey Scotland: 2022-2023

Findings for Scotland from the Small Business Survey 2022-2023


Business Practices

  • 25 per cent of SME employers had engaged in process innovation (i.e. introduced new or improved processes for producing or supplying goods or services) in the last three years
  • 44 per cent of SME employers in 2022-23 engaged in either products, goods, or process innovation
  • 54 per cent of SME employers had arranged or funded training in the previous 12 months. This is 7 per cent higher than in 2021
  • 11 per cent of SME employers engaged with Modern Apprenticeship programmes
  • 30 per cent of SME employers had used external information or advice on matters affecting their business in the previous 12 months

Figure 3: The most popular reason for using external information/advice was the need for accounting-related financial advice, which was reported by 31 per cent of firms.

Reasons for using information or advice (2022-23). Multiple answers allowed across this question.

A bar chart showing 31 per cent of Scottish small to medium sized enterprises sought accounting-related financial advice.

Source: Small Business Survey Scotland 2022-2023 from DBT and Scottish Government. For Figure 3 data, see table ‘K4/5’.

  • 80 per cent of SME employers paid all their employees aged 18 or over (excluding volunteers, apprentices and interns) the Living Wage as defined by the Living Wage Foundation (£10.90 at the time of the survey)
  • of the SMEs in Scotland in 2022-23 who received the Small Business Bonus Scheme (SBBS) relief, a majority (60 per cent)  received relief of between 91 per cent to 100 per cent

Contact

For enquiries about this publication please contact:

Jan Tomasik

Office of the Chief Economic Adviser

e-mail: jan.tomasik@gov.scot or industrystatistics@gov.scot

 

For general enquiries about Scottish Government statistics please contact:

Office of the Chief Statistician

e-mail: statistics.enquiries@gov.scot

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