Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of Companies House address verification procedures in preventing overseas entities from registering UK companies at virtual office addresses, residential properties, or addresses used by large numbers of unconnected companies.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Companies House is continuously improving its ability to detect and prevent the misuse of addresses on the companies register.
The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 enhanced the Registrar’s powers to query and challenge addresses before they are registered and streamlined and strengthened powers to change and remove inappropriate addresses from the register.
Reports on this activity are provided to Parliament each year. The latest report is available here:
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, since the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 came into force, how many companies have been (a) investigated by Companies House for filing dormant accounts whilst conducting active trading, (b) referred by Companies House to HMRC for suspected VAT non-compliance, and (c) referred by Companies House to the Insolvency Service for suspected fraudulent trading.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Companies House does not hold data that matches the specified categories requested. However, since the introduction of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, intelligence led targeted activity has been used to identify companies filing dormant accounts where indicators suggest active trading.
Furthermore, Companies House also works closely with HMRC and the Insolvency Service to enable effective intelligence sharing and coordinated enforcement action. Referrals to HMRC span multiple tax regimes, including VAT non-compliance, while referrals to the Insolvency Service typically focus on more serious misconduct, such as false filings, which supports disqualification and wider enforcement outcomes.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much of the £2.5 billion fund to develop the steel industry as set out under the UK Steel Strategy will be spent in Wales.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The steel strategy reaffirms the government’s intention to spend up to £2.5 billion on the steel sector. This is in addition to the £500 million for Port Talbot.
Building on the direct financial support the government has provided to the sector so far, the National Wealth Fund will be the UK government’s main mechanism for providing financing for investment in the steel sector. Investment decisions are made by the National Wealth Fund on a case-by-case basis and it supports promising projects across the United Kingdom
Specifically for Wales, the Secretary of State for Wales will convene the National Wealth Fund and the private sector in a new initiative to help attract investment to Welsh steel projects, to support communities across Wales that rely on the industry.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what discussions his Department has had with the Competition and Markets Authority regarding opening a strategic market status investigation into Microsoft and its software licensing practices.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department for Business and Trade engages regularly with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on competition issues. The CMA is independent of Government, and decisions on initiating strategic market status investigations (SMS) are a matter for the CMA Board. The CMA has announced that it will open a SMS investigation into Microsoft’s business software ecosystem, expected to launch in May 2026.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many sub postmasters resident in Wales have had claims related to the Horizon IT system (a) settled and (b) not settled.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department for Business and Trade has not, to date, compiled data on Horizon-related claims by the UK’s constituent countries; however, we intend to include this breakdown in a future publication. Overall, across the UK, as of 28 November 2025, approximately 10,000 claims have been settled under the Horizon redress schemes, while around 2,600 received claims remain unsettled.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he has received representations from the Welsh Government on the amount of funding to allocated to Wales from the steel fund.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The UK Government has committed up to £2.5 billion to support the steel industry, which is being delivered in part through the National Wealth Fund. This is in addition to £500 million towards Tata’s transformation of Port Talbot steelworks. The National Wealth Fund, which is operationally independent, is already engaging with companies across the UK on projects that meet its investment principles.
The Welsh Government is represented on the Steel Council, which is a key body for developing our Steel Strategy, to be published later this year.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether levels of compensation payments reflect the impact that failures in the Horizon system had on the families of affected sub-postmasters.
Answered by Gareth Thomas
Many of the impacts experienced by family members of affected postmasters will already be compensated for under the relevant scheme in which postmasters are seeking redress. For example, there will be full compensation paid to the affected postmaster for joint losses such as where a family home has been lost, and this will take account of the financial impacts on family members.
The Government is however considering whether to extend additional redress to members of postmasters’ families who were affected by the scandal and will provide an update in due course.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Internal Market Act 2020 on plans to implement a deposit return scheme in Wales.
Answered by Greg Hands
The UK Government is working cooperatively with all the devolved administrations to deliver interoperability and alignment of deposit returns across the whole of the UK. The interaction with the provisions of the UK Internal Market Act 2020 are being fully considered as part of those discussions.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent discussions she has had on the potential merits of imposing a moratorium on deep sea mining with her counterparts in (a) France, (b) New Zealand, (c) Chile and (d) other countries which have introduced a ban or a moratorium on deep sea mining .
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
The UK is fully engaged in the ongoing negotiations at the International Seabed Authority (ISA) Council and Assembly. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office leads the UK delegation to the ISA.
The UK’s policy is not to sponsor or support the issuing of any exploitation licences for deep sea mining projects unless and until there is sufficient scientific evidence about the potential impact on deep sea ecosystems, and strong enforceable environmental Regulations, Standards and Guidelines have been developed by the ISA and are in place. The UK’s approach is both precautionary and conditional.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps she is taking to tackle fake negative reviews made online by individuals against small businesses.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
The government introduced in Parliament the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (DMCC) Bill on 25 April which includes a delegated power to amend the list of automatically unfair practices set out in the Bill.
Government plans to address fake and misleading reviews that by adding these practices to the banned list following consultation this year. This will include where individuals are procured by traders, or are acting on their behalf, to denigrate another business by posting fake negative reviews.