Debates between Lord Agnew of Oulton and Lord Bhatia during the 2019 Parliament

Future of Financial Services

Debate between Lord Agnew of Oulton and Lord Bhatia
Wednesday 11th November 2020

(3 years, 4 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Agnew of Oulton Portrait Lord Agnew of Oulton (Con)
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My Lords, we absolutely accept that small businesses are the backbone of the wealth-creating part of our economy. One of the answers I gave earlier was looking at the listing rules in this country to see whether we can make it more accessible for smaller firms. I mentioned that I think that you have to issue a full prospectus for anything in excess of €8 million, whereas in the US it is $50 million, so we certainly will be looking at that.

On a slightly unrelated element, but connected to SMEs, the rules reform that we are working on now, post transition, on procurement opens up an enormous opportunity for SMEs, because it will allow us to set our own rules and not be controlled by the EU regime. That covers some £290 billion-worth of government expenditure each year, and we will be making sure that SMEs get a good slice of that.