Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what steps he is taking to ensure that publicly funded research which results in a commercially viable spin-out is accompanied by sufficient access to later-stage finance to support its growth in the UK.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Since 2015, the UK has grown share of global VC investment at all stages. It now matches the Bay Area at early stage, though still lags at breakout and late stages. UK companies also progress between VC rounds at a higher rate than European peers.
To improve later-stage capital, alongside wider government measures, we have increased the British Business Bank’s total financial capacity to £25.6 billion, including £5 billion for growth-stage funds such as the £1 billion+ UK S&T Scale Up Fund. Pensions reforms could unlock up to £50 billion, supported by British Business Bank programmes helping pension funds invest in venture. In parallel, Innovate UK is working with the public finance institutions to create a connected investment pipeline to support science and technology firms from innovation to capital at scale.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
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 the availability of later-stage capital on the ability of university spin-out companies to scale in the UK.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Since 2015, the UK has grown share of global VC investment at all stages. It now matches the Bay Area at early stage, though still lags at breakout and late stages. UK companies also progress between VC rounds at a higher rate than European peers.
To improve later-stage capital, alongside wider government measures, we have increased the British Business Bank’s total financial capacity to £25.6 billion, including £5 billion for growth-stage funds such as the £1 billion+ UK S&T Scale Up Fund. Pensions reforms could unlock up to £50 billion, supported by British Business Bank programmes helping pension funds invest in venture. In parallel, Innovate UK is working with the public finance institutions to create a connected investment pipeline to support science and technology firms from innovation to capital at scale.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what discussions he has had with international partners on establishing common regulatory standards for non-animal methods in medicines development.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is engaging with international regulators and partners to support the global acceptance of validated non-animal methods for medicines development. Through the Replacing Animals in Science strategy, we are strengthening regulatory confidence and supporting UK leadership in the development and adoption of alternative methods. The UK also works through the OECD Working Group of National Co-ordinators of the Test Guidelines Programme, which directs, reviews and adopts internationally harmonised non-animal methods. We continue to explore further bilateral and multilateral engagement to support internationally recognised approaches to non-animal methods.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
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 relationship between access to international finance and the ability of UK creative businesses to scale.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Creative Industries Tax Reliefs have been highly effective in attracting investment into the UK Creative Industries, particularly across film, high end television (HETV) and games. The British Film Commission indicates that inward investment into Film and HETV production in 2023 totalled £5.8 billion, representing 85% of UK production expenditure.
The Government recognises that access to international finance can support the ability of UK creative businesses to scale by providing growth capital, enabling investment in intellectual property, and supporting market expansion.
Research has identified access to finance as a key challenge for creative industries businesses seeking to scale. As a response the Creative Sector Plan sets a target of making the UK the "best place to invest in creative businesses”.
My Department’s Creative Industries team is working in collaboration with the Office for Investment to attract international capital, increasing the capacity for investment in UK creative business growth.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
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 adequacy of the capacity of public finance institutions to support companies through successive stages of growth.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The government continually reviews the capacity of its Public Finance Institutions alongside reviewing the availability of finance for businesses and recognises the importance of supporting firms through every stage of growth. The government has strengthened the capacity of its public finance institutions to do this, including increasing the capacity of the British Business Bank by £9.6 billion at Spending Review 2025, taking its total financial capacity to £25.6 billion.
The Government has set a five-year strategic mandate for the British Business Bank, including supporting high-growth firms to scale, improving finance markets for smaller businesses and mobilising institutional capital at scale.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what discussions he has had with institutional investors on increasing investment in businesses located within the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Secretary of State and Ministers regularly engage with institutional investors about opportunities for investment in the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor and the Corridor’s strengths in the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy sectors, including Life Sciences, Advanced Manufacturing, Digital and Tech, Clean Energy and Defence. These discussions support wider efforts to promote the Corridor as a globally competitive location for innovation, growth and high-value business investment. The Office for Investment supports this by securing strategically significant investment projects that drive growth, create high-value jobs and strengthen the UK’s long-term competitiveness.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the availability of angel investment for female-led businesses.
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 Department recognises that increasing the number of women angel investors is key to improving access to finance for female-led businesses. Evidence from the DBT-backed Investing in Women Code report shows that more diverse angel groups make a larger proportion of their investments into women founders.
Through the British Business Bank, the Government is supporting more diverse angel investment. This Diverse Angels Syndicate programme will support angel syndicates to recruit, train, and invest inclusively. The Regional Angels Programme addresses regional funding gaps and attracts co-investments; its pilot engaged 185 new angel investors, of whom 176 were women.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what estimate he has made of the economic contribution of female-led businesses to UK gross value added.
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)
While the Department has not made an estimate of the economic contribution of female-led businesses to UK gross value added (GVA), independent research demonstrates the significant contribution that women-led businesses make to the UK economy.
The Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship (2019) estimated that up to £250 billion of new value could be added to the UK economy if women started and scaled businesses at the same rate as men. Frontier Economics has since estimated that achieving gender parity in entrepreneurship could increase cumulative UK GVA by €825 billion (£718 billion) by 2040.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department plans to publish annual monitoring reports on the economic impact of the British Growth Partnership.
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 Department does not plan to publish annual monitoring reports on the economic impact of the British Growth Partnership (BGP). Instead, the British Business Bank will report the value of its stake in BGP through its public annual reporting and has commissioned an independent evaluation of BGP. An initial assessment, focusing on process and early delivery outcomes, is expected in 2027. An interim economic evaluation is expected to begin in late 2028, once sufficient time has passed for BGP’s outcomes and impacts to emerge.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the level of the UK’s dependency on imports of strategically important critical minerals.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 2025 Critical Minerals Strategy sets out the UK’s approach to securing supplies of minerals essential to advanced manufacturing, clean energy, defence, and digital sectors. In 2025, the UK imported £13.4 billion of critical minerals and their derivatives. The Department is actively assessing the UK’s dependency on imported critical minerals and is working with industry and international partners to diversify supply and strengthen resilience.