Department for Business and Trade

The Economic Prosperity Deal has reduced tariffs for UK exporters in critical sectors such as the car industry - this includes a preferential rate of 10% on 100,000 UK cars exported to the US each year.

The UK exports around 100,000 cars a year, so this quota will ensure most cars entering the US will do so at a preferential rate.

We are also providing targeted export support through our exports programme and engaging in wider trade policy dialogues with the US.

The government is taking significant steps to support retail and hospitality businesses on high streets. From April 2026, we are introducing permanently lower business‑rates multipliers for retail, hospitality and leisure properties, worth nearly £900 million a year and benefiting over 750,000 premises. In recognition of the impact of the revaluation on bills, the government has introduced £4.3 billion transitional support package, to protect ratepayers from large overnight increases.

We have also announced further targeted support for pubs, and from April eligible pubs will receive a 15% cut to their new business‑rates bills, followed by a two‑year real‑terms freeze. We are also more than doubling the Hospitality Support Fund, with £10 million funding over three years. Later this year, we will bring forward a new High Streets Strategy, to help reinvigorate our communities.

The Department for Business and Trade works closely with other UK Government Departments, including the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and many countries across the Africa continent, to consider a wide range of issues to make sure that two way trade and investment can grow through a stable business environment.

I am delighted to say that we are deepening our trading relationship with India through the UK India Free Trade Agreement, which is estimated to boost UK GDP by £4.8bn, increase wages by £2.2bn, and grow bilateral trade by £25.5bn each year in the long run.

Every region and nation in the UK will benefit from the agreement, including a £190m boost for Scotland supported by market access for whisky, advanced manufacturing and financial services access.

We are now anticipating the deal entering into force in Spring, ahead of the planned schedule of Summer, provided final issues are resolved with India.

Apart from the 2025 National Minimum and Living Wage campaign, no other social media influencers have been commissioned by the Department or its contractors to undertake paid advertising for other campaigns or programmes since July 2024.

Influencer marketing is regarded as a credible promotional channel, which is considered for government advertising campaigns and can be an effective way to reach audiences that the Government and traditional marketing channels find hard to reach. The Department will look to draw on influencer marketing in future campaigns where this helps achieve campaign objectives.

The government is not able to make predictions on total future numbers of businesses starting, closing or contracting. Our plan is to make the UK the best place to start and grow a business, with a culture that supports entrepreneurship in every community and high street.

Our Small Business Plan, launched in July 2025, contains over 200 targeted actions, which will make a real difference to the day-to-day trading operations of small and medium sized businesses and give them the right support to grow and thrive.

The British Business Bank has invested £25 million in Wayve as part of a $1.2 billion Series D funding round, at a post-money valuation of $8.6 billion. Additional capital secured in parallel brings the total value of the raise to $1.5 billion.

The Bank has an objective to “support our most promising businesses in the Industrial Strategy priority sectors to scale and stay here.” Crowding-in private capital was not the primary aim of this investment. Neither the Bank nor the Department has sought to assess the influence, if any, of the Bank’s investment in Wayve on the decisions of private co‑investors.

For financial year 2024-25 the annual cost of the Competition and Markets Authority’s Sustainability Taskforce was £342,983.19. This includes £342,306.01 in staff costs and £677.18 in other programme expenditure covering travel and subsistence.

The Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan sets out how government is supporting industry to develop a highly skilled workforce for the future. Measures include the £182 million Engineering Skills Package which will fund Technical Excellence Colleges including four in Advanced Manufacturing, £47 million to fund engineering skills for adults and £2 million to increase the number of engineering T Levels.

Through the Battery Innovation Programme, the Department directly supports skills centres in the Northeast, Midlands and the South West to develop a pipeline of skilled technicians for the UK’s battery electric vehicle supply chain.

I met senior officials from Ofcom on 17 December and again on 11 March.

I am clear delivery companies must do more to meet the rightful expectations of customers.

Ofcom has written to delivery operators to remind them of their obligations and is gathering evidence of compliance with applicable Consumer Protection Conditions.

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, sellers are responsible for the delivery of goods bought online until they are in the consumer’s physical possession and is responsible if anything goes wrong with the consumer’s parcel, including goods delivered damaged or lost in transit, to liaise with the courier to find out what went wrong.

We are committed to reducing operating costs for all UK businesses, including those in Eastleigh and across Hampshire.

We are reducing the annual administrative burden of regulation by £5.6bn by 2029, enabling UK businesses to unlock growth and boost innovation.

Introducing e-invoicing will also increase efficiency and streamline tax administration.

Tackling late payments will give the UK the strongest legal framework in the G7, intending to legislate as soon as parliamentary time allows. We will publish our response to the late payment consultation setting out the measures we will take forward.

In addition, we are protecting full apprenticeship funding and extending it up to under 25s reducing administrative barriers further.

Effective monitoring and evaluation is integral to assessing manufacturing policy. Current investment incentives are tracked through operational metrics and economic indicators including business investment, productivity, exports, GVA, labour market outcomes and growth of large UK firms.

Recent impact reports show that major programmes are delivering strong returns; for example, the Advanced Propulsion Centre’s R&D programme generated £2.20 of additional private investment for every £1 of public funding. Together, these assessments help ensure that incentives support increased manufacturing capability and long term national output.

Delivery progress against new Industrial Strategy commitments, including for manufacturing, is captured in regular Quarterly Updates.

We are committed to delivering the measures outlined in the Small Business Plan including removing barriers to entrepreneurs, through the most significant package of legislative reforms in 25 years to tackle late payments.

My department also supports entrepreneurs with funding and mentoring through the British Business Bank’s Start-up Loans and our newly launched Business Growth Service.

We will continue to support entrepreneurs at every stage such as those in Doncaster through our Growth Hubs, I believe my honourable friend’s local Hub is Business Doncaster.

Each government department is responsible for providing Parliament with proportionate analysis of any regulatory provisions that it introduces, including the impact of those provisions on SMEs.

The Better Regulation Framework requires departments to produce a dedicated small and micro business assessment and medium-sized business regulatory exemption assessment for all domestic measures that require collective agreement by Cabinet and have an annualised net direct cost to business greater than £10 million.

This approach helps to ensure proportionate and transparent regulation, giving SMEs confidence that the UK is the best place to start and scale a business.

This Government is dedicated to improving rights for working parents. In April, we are making Unpaid Parental Leave and Paternity Leave day-one rights, as well as introducing Bereaved Partners Paternity Leave.

In 2027, we will further improve protections for pregnant women and those returning from Maternity Leave. These reforms will benefit millions of employees across the country.

We also know that more can be done to support working parents. The ongoing Parental Leave and Pay Review is looking at all parental leave entitlements and will conclude next year, informing our next steps.

Through the Employment Rights Act, we are making Paternity Leave a ‘day one’ right from 6 April this year. This will bring an extra 32,000 fathers and partners into scope of the entitlement.

The Government also launched the Parental Leave and Pay Review on 1 July 2025, which will consider all existing and upcoming parental leave entitlements, including Paternity Leave and Pay. The Review will conclude in early 2027 with a set of findings in which the Government will outline next steps for taking any reforms forward to implementation.

Officials are in the process of reviewing the responses to the consultation, and the government will publish a formal response in due course.

My Honourable friend is a real champion of local breweries, especially Moot Brewery in Halling, which she visits regularly and knows produces excellent beer. The government fully recognises the importance of independent breweries and pubs, and we are committed to ensuring the beer and pub sector remains diverse, competitive and rooted in local communities. We have reviewed the beer market to assess any barriers facing small breweries, and I will announce the outcome in due course.

The Review launched on 1 July 2025 and started with a period of discovery to understand the current system and gather evidence and views from stakeholders. We received almost 1,500 responses to the Call for Evidence. These are currently being analysed, and the findings will inform the Review. We are continuing to engage with stakeholders (including business groups, parent groups, and academics) throughout 2026 to inform the Review.

The Review will conclude in early 2027 with a set of findings in which the Government will outline next steps for taking any reforms forward to implementation.

The Government’s Parental Leave and Pay Review will conclude in early 2027 with a set of findings which outline next steps for implementing any reforms.

In addition to considering, all current and upcoming parental leave and pay entitlements, the Review is considering the needs of other working families who do not qualify for existing leave and pay entitlements, such as kinship carers.

The Government is also supporting kinship carers through other mechanisms and has recently launched a kinship pilot to support up to 5,000 kinship families by paying eligible carers an allowance equivalent to the Fostering National Minimum Allowance.

The Government’s Parental Leave and Pay Review will conclude in early 2027 with a set of findings which outline next steps for implementing any reforms.

In addition to considering, all current and upcoming parental leave and pay entitlements, the Review is considering the needs of other working families who do not qualify for existing leave and pay entitlements, such as kinship carers.

The Government is also supporting kinship carers through other mechanisms and has recently launched a kinship pilot to support up to 5,000 kinship families by paying eligible carers an allowance equivalent to the Fostering National Minimum Allowance.

The Government’s Parental Leave and Pay Review will conclude in early 2027 with a set of findings which outline next steps for implementing any reforms.

In addition to considering, all current and upcoming parental leave and pay entitlements, the Review is considering the needs of other working families who do not qualify for existing leave and pay entitlements, such as kinship carers.

The Government is also supporting kinship carers through other mechanisms and has recently launched a kinship pilot to support up to 5,000 kinship families by paying eligible carers an allowance equivalent to the Fostering National Minimum Allowance.

A review of the harmonised standard for ethnicity data collection is underway by the Government Statistical Service Harmonisation team.

A public consultation between October 2025 and February 2026 sought views from a wide range of users, including Government Departments and public bodies, to understand user needs for ethnic group data. This was supplemented by a programme of engagement activity, including with representatives of all government departments.

ONS have committed to providing an initial response to the public consultation in April, and a full report on the consultation in late summer 2026 will include more detailed information on the departments that responded to the consultation.

We are improving our relationship with the EU and will align with the EU where it is in our national interest. This will help reduce barriers to trade, and the bureaucracy and onerous paperwork for UK businesses, particularly SMEs. Alongside this, DBT publishes explainer documents on key EU regulations and market specific guides on business.gov.uk, through which SME’s can access Unlock Europe, a new programme from UK Business Academy, designed to help businesses build stronger relationships with European customers and increase exporting potential to the EU.

The Office for Responsible Business Conduct promotes the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct and provides a non-judicial grievance mechanism for complaints of non-observance by UK businesses. The government also launched a review, through the Trade Strategy, of the UK’s approach to responsible business conduct, focusing on tackling human rights and labour abuses and environmental harms in global supply chains, including those in the fashion industry.

While concerns have been raised about unfair practices, there are currently no plans to introduce a Fashion Watchdog. However, other measures are being considered as part of the responsible business conduct review. We will update the House once the review is complete.

The Government is undertaking the fourth statutory review into the effectiveness of the GCA, and covers the period from 31 March 2022 – 1 April 2025. The review sought input on the GCA’s effectiveness in enforcing the Code, its role alongside the Agricultural Supply Chain Adjudicator and potential unfair practices outside its current remit. The Government is currently analysing responses and other publicly available evidence covering the review period. The review report will be published as soon as practicable.

The Government is undertaking the fourth statutory review into the effectiveness of the GCA, and covers the period from 31 March 2022 - 1 April 2025. The review sought input on the GCA's effectiveness in enforcing the Code, its role alongside the Agricultural Supply Chain Adjudicator and potential unfair practices outside its current remit. The Government is currently analysing responses and other publicly available evidence covering the review period. The review report will be published as soon as practicable.

The Office for Responsible Business Conduct promotes the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct and provides a non-judicial grievance mechanism for complaints of non-observance by UK businesses. The government also launched a review, through the Trade Strategy, of the UK's approach to responsible business conduct, which is focussed on tackling human rights, labour abuses and environmental harms in global supply chains, including those in the fashion industry. We will update the House once the review is complete.

We have already announced measures to tackle late payments through additional reporting requirements for large firms and launched a new Fair Payment Code which aims to boost cash flow for small businesses, crucial for their survival, by tackling late payments and lengthy payment terms that can lead to financial strain and failure.

Statistics on foreign owned businesses are published separately by each of the devolved nations. Figures are rounded to the nearest 5 and cover registered businesses only.

Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency:

Northern Ireland Business: Activity, Size, Location, and Ownership 2025 | Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency

• around 5 Chinese owned businesses in Northern Ireland in 2025

Scottish Government:

Businesses in Scotland: 2025 - gov.scot

• around 15 Chinese owned businesses in Scotland in 2025

Welsh Government:

Ad-hoc statistical requests: 3 to 14 November 2025 | GOV.WALES

• around 10 Chinese owned businesses in Wales in 2024

There are no statistics published for Chinese owned business in England.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes statistics for the UK which show that in 2022 there were 349 Chinese-owned businesses in the UK.

Inward foreign affiliates statistics, UK, 2018 to 2022 - Office for National Statistics

The ONS statistics are compiled from a different source and are not comparable to the statistics published by the devolved nations.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has not made a formal assessment on the net departure of business owners from the UK in the past two years.

Through the Industrial Strategy and Plan for SMEs, the government is backing entrepreneurs to start, scale and stay in the UK. DBT continues to focus on its core mission of supporting businesses to invest, grow and export, helping to ensure the UK remains an attractive destination for business activity.

DBT provides a range of services for UK firms - including business support, access to finance, investment facilitation, and export assistance - aimed at helping companies manage rising costs, expand markets, and navigate economic uncertainty.

We are undertaking detailed analysis to assess the potential impact of any closure of the Strait of Hormuz on British businesses. We are monitoring the situation closely and working across government to safeguard UK economic resilience. We have an export support team that businesses can reach out to for support on disrupted trade or supply chains. We continue to analyse the potential impact of increased energy prices however this is not a question of security of supply, and we are confident that we have multiple and sufficient sources of supply.

The DBT Longitudinal Small Business Survey[1] reports that 45 percent of SME employers offer training to their employees. The Department does not hold specific information on dedicated budgets for training.

[1] Small Business Survey 2024: businesses with employees - GOV.UK

All businesses must comply with relevant laws and employers must comply with their legal obligations to ensure that their workforce receive the rights and protections to which they are entitled.

Evri, and other parcel delivery operators, are independent businesses and the government does not have a role in their operational decisions.

Ofcom, the independent regulator for postal services, does not regulate the employment or remuneration models of Evri or other parcel delivery companies.

Ministers have regular discussions with Ofcom in its capacity as the independent regulator for the postal sector with the responsibility and powers to regulate postal services.

The government wants to see all operators provide a good level of service, including during peak seasons. However, parcel delivery companies are independent businesses, and the government has no role in their operational decisions.

Ministers have regular discussions with Ofcom in its capacity as the independent regulator for the postal sector with the responsibility and powers to regulate postal services. The government does not have a role in Ofcom’s regulatory decisions.

Following market developments, Ofcom are gathering evidence of operator’s compliance levels with their applicable Consumer Protection Conditions.

Ofcom is the independent regulator for the postal sector. The government does not have a role in Ofcom’s regulatory decisions.

Ofcom last reviewed postal regulation in 2022 and considered extending the requirement on Royal Mail to publish complaints handling reports to the wider parcels sector. It concluded the market, then, was working well.

Following recent market developments, Ofcom is gathering evidence of operator’s compliance levels with their applicable Consumer Protection Conditions.

The UK Government has, for the first time, chosen to put Professional and Business Services at the heart of our modern industrial policy, with consultancy as one of its key Frontier Sectors driving future growth.

The Department supports small consultancy businesses through a range of measures designed to improve capability, competitiveness and access to opportunities. Smaller consultancies benefit from improved access to government procurement and initiatives that encourage investment in digital, AI and innovation, helping them develop new services and grow sustainably. The government has pledged to cut regulatory administrative costs by 25% - a move designed to unlock growth, boost innovation and reduce burdens on businesses across key sectors.

In addition, SMEs can access tailored advice via the Business Growth Service, local Growth Hubs, the Help to Grow: Management scheme, and finance through the British Business Bank, strengthening their leadership, skills and long-term resilience.

The Government recognises that too many small businesses have been held back from achieving growth and reaching their full potential in recent years. That is why we published our Plan for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses. The Plan contains over 200 targeted actions which will make a real difference to the day-to-day trading operations of small businesses, supporting them to grow and reduce costs. This includes reducing regulatory admin costs by 25%, tackling late payments, modernising the tax and customs system and launching a new Business Growth Service, all of which will save businesses time and money.

The Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act is a temporary measure to ensure that critical steel facilities remain operational. The Government keeps BSL's financial position under constant review to protect taxpayers' interests while ensuring continuity of safe and responsible operations. BSL continues trading commercially and Government officials are continuing to provide on-site support in Scunthorpe monitoring, reviewing and scrutinising the use of taxpayer funds with robust financial governance in place.

Employee-owned businesses are a significant part of the UK economy, with 2,470 EOBs in the UK as of June 2025, employing over 335,000 people.

DBT, as part of the Autumn Budget announcements, launched a Call for Evidence on Business Support for Co-operatives and Mutuals, which closed on the 18th February. DBT is now analysing responses and these will inform any potential business support policies to support the growth of the sector.

The government is committed to supporting the growth of the mutuals sector in line with the manifesto commitment to double the size of the sector. To deliver this, the Chancellor announced a multi-year programme of measures at Mansion House 2024 which government is now delivering.

The five meetings of the Stamp Advisory Committee which were attended by an official from the Department for Business and Trade took place, respectively, on 21 November 2024; 23 January 2025; 10 July 2025; 11 September 2025; and 20 November 2025.

Additionally, an official from the Department attended a Committee meeting on 22 January 2026.

The Government aims to strike the right balance between transparency and privacy, ensuring the Companies House register does not become a tool for abuse. Any individual can therefore apply to protect their residential address in most cases where it appears on the public register. No evidence of being at risk of harm is required.

HMG is working closely with EY, who are providing onsite management support, to review British Steel’s forecasts and ensure that any funding requests are robust. HMG and EY work closely with British Steel management on scenario planning to ensure that the company can respond effectively to unexpected financial pressures. Contingency provisions have been built into forecasts throughout the intervention to address potential risks, including lower sales receipts, fluctuations in production levels, and urgent capital investment needs. At present, the intervention is funded from existing budgets which are considered sufficient to manage any such pressures.

The £375 million capital allocation for British Steel Limited is recoverable as a debt owed to the Crown. The sole stipulation for this funding is that it must be used strictly for the purposes established in the legislation. Recoverability of this debt will be further assessed at year-end and the resulting treatment will be reflected and published in the Department for Business and Trade's accounts for 2025-26.

The £375m is intended for British Steel Limited, a private limited company limited by shares incorporated in the United Kingdom under the Companies Act 2006 and registered in England and Wales with company number 12303256.