Asked by: Imogen Walker (Labour - Hamilton and Clyde Valley)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of late payments on small businesses in Hamilton and Clyde Valley constituency.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No specific assessment has been made of the potential impact of late payments on SME across Hamiliton and Clyde Valley.
Late payments cost the UK economy £11bn per year and cause the closure of the equivalent of 38 UK businesses every day.
The Commercial Payments Bill is the most significant legislation tackling late payments in over 25 years. It expands the powers of the Small Business Commissioner, mandates statutory interest on late payments at 8% above the Bank of England base rate and introduces maximum payment terms for larger businesses; giving the UK the strongest legal framework on late payments in the G7.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what assessment he has made of financial pressures facing the UK automotive sector.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) (Jointly with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We engage regularly with industry, including through the Automotive Council, to understand the pressures facing the sector and ensure that Government support continues to reflect businesses' evolving needs. Through DRIVE35, the Government is committing up to £4 billion of capital and R&D funding to 2035, the biggest government investment in the post-war era. We have also introduced the Electric Car Grant, delayed changes to Employee Car Ownership Schemes, and are reducing industrial electricity costs from 2027 through the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, pursuant to the answer of 29 June 2026 to Question 12169 on Business: Regulation, whether regulations stemming from EU legislation are in scope of the targets.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) (Jointly with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government's commitment to cut the administrative burden of regulation on business by 25% by the end of this Parliament covers central UK government regulation, as set out in the Technical Annex published in July 2026.
Consistent with the Standard Cost Model, regulations originating from EU or international obligations are within scope to the extent that they are implemented domestically.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what recent steps he has taken to work towards the phasing out of animal testing.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 8 September 2026 to Question UIN 23800. (Find written questions and answers - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament)
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to tackle structural barriers to private capital investment.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Attracting private investment is crucial for driving economic growth across the UK. The Government is focused on tackling barriers to investment, including on planning, access to finance, grid connections, and skills.
For instance, we are also accelerating delivery through the Planning and Infrastructure Act, cutting delays for major projects. Alongside this, the National Wealth Fund’s £27.8 billion capitalisation is helping to share risk and unlock private investment in infrastructure, clean energy and other growth-driving sectors—creating the conditions for investment to flow more quickly into the UK economy.
We have also expanded the Office for Investment to enable greater coordination across government.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, whether the £4.75m contribution from the Office of Life Sciences for phase two of the Sequence ME & Long Covid study for this project will be supplemented by funding from MRC.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no plans for MRC to provide further funding to the study.
Asked by: Henry Tufnell (Labour - Mid and South Pembrokeshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of making manufacturers operating under SIC codes 2599 and 2790 eligible for support under the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) (Jointly with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government can confirm that manufacturers operating under SIC codes 2599 and 2790 are within the scope of the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme.
Businesses must meet all of the scheme's eligibility criteria to be eligible and are encouraged to use the online eligibility checker to assess their likelihood of being eligible.
Asked by: Earl of Clancarty (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports of destructive scanning of books by or for tech companies; and whether they intend to take action to halt this practice.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The government is aware of reports of AI companies destructively scanning physical books as part of model training. As set out in our March report on copyright and AI, we are taking steps to help rightsholders control and license their work, including reviewing technical solutions, standards and best practice on input transparency.
This work will help inform whether Government intervention is needed, and if so, what a proportionate approach might look like.
Asked by: Euan Stainbank (Labour - Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, how many companies with a primary Standard Industrial Classification of 08 (other mining and quarrying) entered insolvency in the United Kingdom in each year since 2018.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) (Jointly with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Numbers of companies with the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code 08 (other mining and quarrying) that entered insolvency in the UK in each year since 2018 are presented in the table below.
Year | Total | England and Wales | Scotland | Northern Ireland |
2018 | 11 | 10 | 1 | 0 |
2019 | 13 | 7 | 1 | 5 |
2020 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 |
2021 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 |
2022 | 8 | 7 | 0 | 1 |
2023 | 10 | 7 | 0 | 3 |
2024 | 8 | 7 | 0 | 1 |
2025 | 15 | 12 | 1 | 2 |
2026 [note 1] | 9 | 8 | 0 | 1 |
Note 1: these numbers represent company insolvencies registered on or before 31 August 2026.
Asked by: Olly Glover (Liberal Democrat - Didcot and Wantage)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, whether pavement delivery robots are intended to be among the first uses of the sandboxing powers in the Regulating for Growth Bill; and what parliamentary scrutiny will apply to individual sandboxes established under those powers.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) (Jointly with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
As set out in the Government’s Regulation Action Plan Progress Report 2026, pavement delivery robots are among the early use cases being considered for the regulatory sandboxing powers proposed in the forthcoming Regulating for Growth Bill.
As the Government has previously stated, any trials of pavement delivery robots must protect the safety of pedestrians and vulnerable road users. Robust safeguards and parliamentary scrutiny are core components of the sandboxing framework, of which further details will be set out when the Bill is introduced and debated by Parliament.