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.
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 steps his Department is taking to strengthen domestic supply chains for critical minerals.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Critical Minerals Strategy sets out the Governments’ approach to securing domestic critical minerals supply by harnessing the UK’s competitive advantage in midstream processing and recycling, leveraging the UK’s distinct pockets of mineral wealth, and working with international partners to build more resilient UK and global supply networks.
We are delivering on the strategy’s objective to optimise domestic production through a range of measures including streamlined planning and permitting, competitive energy costs and a range of financial support such as £50 million for critical mineral projects in the UK to scale domestic capability, unlock investment, and drive economic 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 and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to improve investment into UK critical mineral processing capacity.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Critical Minerals Strategy outlines the Government’s approach to securing supply by harnessing the UK’s competitive advantage in midstream processing and recycling of critical minerals and supporting the scaling of UK-based capabilities. It sets out how we are supporting UK critical mineral processing capacity through a range of measures including streamlined permitting, competitive energy costs and targeted financial support.
We are investing £50 million for critical mineral projects to expand research, innovation and commercialisation, supporting a UK Magnet Hub for rare earth magnet manufacturing and the Critical Minerals Accelerator to scale up and de-risk domestic projects.
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 steps his Department is taking to support further exports of UK small modular reactor technology to international markets.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
As the UK’s export credit agency, UK Export Finance offers a range of products to exporters across the nuclear sector, including the fuel cycle, the supply chain, and new technologies such as small modular reactors and advanced modular reactors. The Secretary of State and I have spoken directly to our counterparts in several countries in support of UK small modular reactor technology and UKEF stands ready to support UK nuclear technology companies seeking overseas contracts.
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 steps his Department is taking to improve export finance support for UK nuclear technology companies seeking overseas contracts.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
As the UK’s export credit agency, UK Export Finance offers a range of products to exporters across the nuclear sector, including the fuel cycle, the supply chain, and new technologies such as small modular reactors and advanced modular reactors. The Secretary of State and I have spoken directly to our counterparts in several countries in support of UK small modular reactor technology and UKEF stands ready to support UK nuclear technology companies seeking overseas contracts.
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 opportunities for UK fintech firms arising from digital trade negotiations with Malaysia.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Malaysia has a rapidly expanding digital economy and a strong trading relationship with the UK in digitally delivered services, worth over £1 billion in 2023. Negotiations on a UK-Malaysia Digital Trade Agreement present an opportunity to reduce barriers and ensure UK firms can compete and thrive in fast‑growing, tech‑driven markets. This could unlock further benefits for a wide range of UK businesses, including fintech firms. We will continue to engage closely with industry as negotiations progress.