Insurance one of only seven sectors seeing new start-ups

The Scottish insurance and pension industry has seen a 14% increase in new start businesses, despite the economic downturn, according to the Committee of Scottish Clearing Banks

The sector is only one of seven industries in Scotland that has seen an increase in new businesses.

Other risers were:

  • electrical, gas & water supply up by 20%,
  • education up 9%,
  • public admin and defence up 8%
  • real estate & renting up 4%
  • health and social work up 3%
  • secretarial is up by 2%

The worst industries affected are mining and quarrying (down 65%), financial intermediation (down 36%) and agriculture, hunting and forestry (down 34%).

Ceri Rogers, organiser of New Start Scotland, a business support exhibition, said: “Despite the overall number of Scottish new-starts being down 11%, these figures clearly show that there are still many sectors thriving.