Asked by: Gordon McKee (Labour - Glasgow South)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what metrics his Department uses to assess the effectiveness of the Government's innovation strategy.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government uses a range of international and UK metrics to track progress on innovation.
For international comparisons, we use several metrics such as rankings from the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Global Innovation Index, data from the OECD Science and Technology Indicators, and numbers of patents, academic publications, citations and other bibliometric data from several other sources.
To understand UK innovation, we use official statistics such as the number of innovation active businesses from the UK Innovation Survey, R&D expenditure by government and businesses from the Office for National Statistics, and R&D tax credit data from HMRC. We also utilise metrics on university knowledge exchange and commercialisation from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
The Government also uses our Innovation Clusters Map to identify emerging clusters. The 2025 update will allow year-by-year performance tracking of priority clusters with metrics such as levels of public R&D investment, company formation, and job creation.
Asked by: Gordon McKee (Labour - Glasgow South)
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 risks to UK AI capability arising from dependence on overseas providers of cloud computing services.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The Government is committed to scaling the UK’s domestic compute capacity to support national resilience and security, ensuring that the UK has the infrastructure needed to benefit from frontier AI. AI Growth Zones are central to this effort, helping to establish more compute capacity in the UK while creating opportunities for UK companies to participate in major AI infrastructure projects.
The Government also recognises that many cloud services used in the UK are delivered by internationally owned providers. We therefore focus on the resilience and security of the services on which the UK depends, rather than ownership alone. Our approach is to manage risks arising from concentration, dependencies and supply chains through regulatory oversight, operational resilience measures and a diverse cloud market.
Asked by: Gordon McKee (Labour - Glasgow South)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on reducing administrative burdens for UK businesses exporting to the European Union.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to supporting UK businesses trading with the European Union and to reducing unnecessary barriers to trade with our closest partner and biggest market to help delivery growth to every post code.
Ministers and officials in my department regularly engage with Cabinet colleagues on matters affecting exporters and economic growth.
We also provide a range of business support services, information, training, events and expert support to both new and experienced exporters, including through ‘Unlock Europe’, a free webinar series which features regular sessions for businesses on how to navigate EU regulations.
Asked by: Gordon McKee (Labour - Glasgow South)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what support his Department has provided to satellite manufacturing and space technology businesses based in Glasgow since July 2024.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department recognises Glasgow’s role as a European leader in small satellite manufacturing.
The National Space Innovation Programme (NSIP), National Earth Observation Programme, Connectivity in Low Earth Orbit and wider Space Ecosystem supports UK businesses and researchers develop satellite communications, resilient navigation, Earth observation and manufacturing capabilities.
Since July 2024, NSIP funding has supported two Glasgow-based projects with £8.3 million, backing HyImpulse’s sub-orbital rocket test from SaxaVord and £4.9 million, backing Spire Global’s weather data technology.
Glasgow-based companies have also received €5.25million in ESA contracts.
The Department supports Space Scotland and the UK Space Cluster Network to strengthen Scotland’s space ecosystem.
Asked by: Gordon McKee (Labour - Glasgow South)
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 private equity ownership on long-term investment in UK high street businesses.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has not made a specific assessment of the impact of private equity ownership on long-term investment in UK high street businesses. Decisions on ownership structures and investment strategies are matters for individual businesses and investors.
The Small Business Plan sets out the Government’s approach to supporting high street businesses to thrive, including through expanding access to finance, reductions to business rates, and supporting and nurturing a range of alternative business models like co-operatives and mutuals.
Asked by: Gordon McKee (Labour - Glasgow South)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what steps the Department is taking to ensure that small businesses in each area can access practical support to adopt artificial intelligence safely and productively.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The government is committed to helping small businesses across the UK adopt AI safely and productively.
The industry-led SME Digital Adoption Taskforce set an ambition for the UK’s small and medium-sized businesses to be the most digitally capable and AI confident in the G7 by 2035. We are working to deliver their recommendations, including pilots with small businesses in the West of England and West Yorkshire, collaboration with industry on support, and new offers through the Business Growth Service. An update was published in June 2026.
The AI Skills Boost programme is also helping workers with AI skills, including cyber security.
Asked by: Gordon McKee (Labour - Glasgow South)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps the Department is taking to raise awareness among small businesses of the expanded role and powers of the Small Business Commissioner.
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 Government is committed to ensuring that small businesses are aware of the Small Business Commissioner’s expanded role and powers. The Commissioner already provides advice, guidance and support through its website, outreach activity and communications channels, and these will be strengthened as new powers are introduced. The Department will work closely with the Commissioner to deliver a comprehensive communications and engagement programme, helping small businesses understand their rights, access support, and benefit from the stronger protections and enforcement measures provided by the Commercial Payments Bill.
Asked by: Gordon McKee (Labour - Glasgow South)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps the Department is taking to ensure that the design of the UK’s electronic invoicing regime minimises costs and administrative burdens for small 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)
Electronic invoicing, or e-invoicing, will become mandatory for VAT transactions from April 2029. E-invoicing will help business productivity and efficiency, reduce late payments and streamline tax administration.
DBT and HMRC ran a consultation between February and May 2025 to gather views on e-invoicing from a wide range of stakeholders, including small businesses and business representative organisations.
We are now working collaboratively to co-design e-invoicing policy, including with business representative organisations and accountancy and bookkeeping networks who champion small business interests.
The government will publish an Implementation Roadmap at Budget 2026 to update on progress and set out key milestones ahead of the mandate.
Asked by: Gordon McKee (Labour - Glasgow South)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps the Department is taking with the Cabinet Office to help innovative scale-up businesses navigate public procurement processes and secure opportunities to supply the public sector.
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 for Business and Trade is working closely with the Cabinet Office, HM Treasury and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (including the Commercial Innovation Hub) to improve public procurement of innovation.
Through the Industrial Strategy and measures announced at Autumn Budget 2025 the government is going further to support innovative UK scale-ups to access public procurement – including through the establishment of an Innovation Marketplace, expanded use of Advance Market Commitments and appointment of Innovation Champions in all departments.
Asked by: Gordon McKee (Labour - Glasgow South)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to improve the availability of large scale capital in the UK for late stage start up 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 government is taking action to improve the availability of large-scale growth capital available to UK scale-ups. Through a new strategic mandate and reforms to the British Business Bank (BBB), the BBB is increasing support for late-stage businesses, including through larger and faster investments. The government has increased BBB’s financial capacity to £25.6 billion, enabling it to invest both directly and through funds at scale, helping to mobilise private capital and ensuring late stage UK companies can access the finance they need to scale and remain in the UK.