Organisations (SCVO), 1998). SCVO also
estimate that in Scotland the voluntary sector
employs the equivalent of 49,000 full-time jobs, is
supported by 300,000 volunteers and has a
turnover of £1.8 billion per annum. Where
definitions are less precise, the difficulties of
measurement are magnified, sometimes producing
results which are apparently impossible to
reconcile. As a recent Small Business Service
report notes, while the Department for
Environment, Transport and the Regions
estimated that approximately 450 social
enterprises were trading in the UK in 1998,
Community Enterprise in Strathclyde estimated
that in lowland Scotland alone there were 3,700
community enterprises in 1997 (Smallbone et al.,
2001). Despite these difficulties, it is clear that the
social economy contributes significantly to the
economic and social fabric of the UK