Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to encourage economic growth in the (a) pubs and (b) hospitality sectors.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government recognises the vital role that hospitality businesses play in local communities and the economy. That’s why we’re investing £440,000 with Pub is The Hub to help rural pubs diversify, aiming to support rural communities, create new jobs and services.
The Government invited views and evidence to aid development of a modern, proportionate and enabling licensing system. A Call for Evidence ran for four weeks until 6 November. This attracted a significant number of responses and work is now underway to analyse these. These reforms form part of the Small Business Strategy, which is designed to tackle late payments, improve access to finance and reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens.
We are also creating a fairer business rates system, including permanently lower rates for retail, hospitality and leisure properties with a rateable value under £500,000. We continue to work closely with the sector through the Hospitality Sector Council to address challenges.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of regulatory costs on the pub sector.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is committed to easing regulatory burdens for businesses like pubs in the UK, creating the space they need to grow, innovate and thrive. We work closely with the Hospitality Sector Council to improve the productivity and resilience of hospitality businesses by co-creating solutions to the issues impacting business performance.
This is why we launched the licensing taskforce last April, a joint effort between Government and Industry with aims to reduce the administrative burdens the UK licensing regime places on our highstreets. The Government invited views to help shape these reforms and the Call for evidence ran for 4 weeks and ended on the 6 November. This attracted a significant number of responses and work is now underway to analyse these.
Additionally, to help ease cost pressures on pubs, from April 2026, eligible retail, hospitality, and leisure properties with rateable values below £500,000 will benefit from permanently lower business rates multipliers and alcohol duty has been reduced on qualifying draught products which is approximately 60% of the alcoholic drinks sold in pubs.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 27 June 2025 to Question 61227 on Department for Business and Trade: Public Expenditure, how many lines of activity in his Department were considered as part of the zero based review.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
At Spending Review 2025, the government conducted the first zero-based review (ZBR) of department budgets in 18 years, with every line of spending scrutinised to ensure value for money.
Through the zero-based review, the Department for Business and Trade carried out a line-by-line review of its current budgets. The review involved differing levels of granularity depending on the type and size of expenditure under review.
To ensure consistency in approach, cross-government guidance set expectations for the level of granularity each review should consider, recommending that departments review all spending within individual programme expenditure - at a minimum reflecting any lines of spending in excess of £1m per annum.
Savings identified through this process will support delivery of the government's commitment for all departments to deliver at least 5% savings and efficiencies by 2028-29.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 17 June 2025 to Question 59412 on Government Departments: Reviews, if his Department will publish the line by line review of its spending conducted for the Spending Review 2025.
Answered by Justin Madders
DBT is committed to meeting the 5% savings and efficiency target, with SR funding allocations agreed on this basis.
These funding allocations – informed by the findings of the ZBR – are the first step in a wider plan to finalise budgets for different projects and programmes, with any necessary savings decided through that process. The savings taken forward will be subject to the normal rigorous business planning processes, and in-year financial management.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to section 2 of her Department's policy paper entitled New approach to ensure regulators and regulation support growth, updated on 31 March 2025, when the administrative costs of regulation baselining exercise will conclude.
Answered by Justin Madders
The government has committed to cut the administrative costs of regulation to business by 25% by the end of this Parliament. To do this, we must determine the cumulative administrative costs of regulation which has not been done for 15 years. At that time, the exercise took approximately 18 months, which was consistent with efforts of other countries that have undertaken similar exercises.
We are working in partnership with businesses to understand their real-life experiences of regulatory compliance to establish a robust regulatory baseline. We will publish an update on this baseline exercise and our expected timelines in due course.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to section 2 of the policy paper entitled New approach to ensure regulators and regulation support growth, updated on 31 March 2025, how many people are employed by the British Hallmarking Council.
Answered by Justin Madders
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to section 2 of the policy paper entitled New approach to ensure regulators and regulation support growth, updated on 31 March 2025, what the annual operating cost is of the British Hallmarking Council .
Answered by Justin Madders
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to section 2 of her Department's policy paper entitled New approach to ensure regulators and regulation support growth, updated on 31 March 2025, what the estimated saving is from merging the Office of the Regulator of Community Interest Companies and Companies House.
Answered by Justin Madders
The Office of the Regulator of Community Interest Companies (“CICs”) (“the Regulator”) plays a crucial role in maintaining the CIC model as an effective form of social enterprise. By exploiting the considerable overlap between the Regulator and Companies House, and the close working relationship that already exists between the two, the Government intends to fully integrate the Regulator’s functions into Companies House as part of wider plans to streamline the UK’s regulatory environment. Both organisations are funded by fees, and there are no expected direct savings.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to increase private investment as a proportion of GDP.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Investment is at the heart of the government’s growth mission, increasing the number of good, well-skilled jobs and improving productivity across the country. The Department for Business and Trade works with all investor-facing business units to deliver support for the highest-value, highest-impact FDI projects into the UK. DBT officials work on a daily basis with businesses of all sizes to ensure a close partnership between government and business, and to showcase the multitude of investment opportunities the UK has to offer.
The Industrial Strategy Green Paper (published 14 October) sets out a credible, 10-year plan to deliver the certainty and stability businesses need to invest in UK.
The government also hosted an international investment summit in October 2024 where nearly 38,000 jobs across the country were announced alongside a record-breaking £63 billion of investment.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to encourage foreign direct investment.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Investment is at the heart of the government’s growth mission, increasing the number of good, well-skilled jobs and improving productivity across the country. The Department for Business and Trade works with all investor-facing business units to deliver support for the highest-value, highest-impact FDI projects into the UK. DBT officials work on a daily basis with businesses of all sizes to ensure a close partnership between government and business, and to showcase the multitude of investment opportunities the UK has to offer.
The Industrial Strategy Green Paper (published 14 October) sets out a credible, 10-year plan to deliver the certainty and stability businesses need to invest in UK.
The government also hosted an international investment summit in October 2024 where nearly 38,000 jobs across the country were announced alongside a record-breaking £63 billion of investment.