Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that SMEs are paid on time by larger firms.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
The Government is aware that late payment remains a significant problem for small businesses across the country. That is why at the beginning of 2023 the Government launched a review of Cash flow and Prompt Payment, alongside a public consultation on the Payment Performance Regulations. The findings of the review, alongside the consultation response, will be published later in 2023.
The Government will use the findings of this review to improve the Payment Performance Regulations, the Small Business Commissioner, and the Prompt Payment Code to improve payment culture in the UK, to reduce late payments and its impact on SMEs.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to support business exports.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
The Government’s Export Strategy, ‘Made in the UK, Sold to the World’, focuses on the challenges UK businesses face when exporting and sets out a 12-point plan which targets barriers to trade and helps businesses at every stage of their export journey. My Department continues to support companies through our network of domestic and overseas trade advisers, sector specialists, Export Support Service, Export Academy, International Markets network as well as through UK Export Finance. We are also helping businesses to benefit from new free trade agreements and working across Government to reduce barriers to exporting and simplify border processes.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent discussions she has had with her US counterpart on reducing market barriers for UK firms to trade at the state level in the United States.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
My honourable friend is right to raise opportunities to boost trade at the state level. Just last week, I signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Oklahoma, our fourth with an individual US state, which provides a framework to promote British business and tackle barriers to trade.
We are also supporting professional bodies and regulators to remove barriers at the state level, including through recognition of professional qualifications. Last week, I attended the launch of an architecture Mutual Recognition Agreement between British and American regulators which we estimate could increase UK services exports to the US by £40 million per annum.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to increase trade with growing economies in Africa.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
My department has a team of experts across Africa supporting British businesses to thrive and increasing trade and investment. We are using our 9 trade agreements covering 18 African nations to grow trade. These provide preferential access to UK markets for African goods and frameworks for cooperation. The Developing Countries Trading Scheme will lower tariffs to support an additional 33 African countries to increase exports. We are also working bilaterally to deepen relationships with growing African economies. In 2024, the Prime Minister will host the second UK-African Investment Summit to showcase investment opportunities and advance two-way trade.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to increase trade opportunities for the technology sector.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
The Prime Minister has set a clear ambition to grow the UK as a Science and Technology Superpower. Core to this is the need to have UK companies growing through international expansion. My Department is supporting this growth through our teams in over 100 countries, sourcing opportunities for UK companies in sectors such as AI and Quantum. DBT also supports tech companies to access global markets through putting them on the world stage at large overseas trade shows such as Mobile World Congress and Web Summit. The Export Academy, which supports businesses from all sectors, and the Export Support Service – International Markets, which handled over 9,600 enquiries since launch in April 2022 - February 2023, help organisations with their international expansion.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent steps her Department is taking to support businesses to export.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
The Government’s Export Strategy supports UK business through a 12-Point Plan that targets barriers to trade and makes Government support easier to access through our trans-formed Export Support Service. We continue to drive awareness of the UK’s Free Trade Agreements to ensure businesses reap the full benefits from these.
The creation of the Department for Business and Trade presents a huge opportunity to maximise our business support including the new ‘Help to Grow’ initiative that helps SMEs scale up then export globally as well as access to the right finance via UK Export Finance and the British Business Bank.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to help secure more inward investment into the UK.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
The UK's foreign direct investment (FDI) stock is largest in Europe, second to the US globally. The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) plays a crucial role in attracting and retaining this investment, present in over 150 countries through international networks. DBT supports investors new to the UK by providing insight on finance, skills and visas. Alongside the Office for Investment, we help investors with site selection, customer connections and market expertise. In 2021/22, DBT supported nearly 1,200 investments worth approximately £7 billion of economic impact over the next three years. The Global Investment Summit 2023 will build on this success, aiming to raise billions of high value investment.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to increase trade opportunities for the life sciences sector.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
Life Sciences is one of the UK’s top exporting sectors, with £28.1 billion goods exported in 2022. In line with the Export Strategy’s 12-point plan and Board of Trade report on Life Sciences, the department pursues an ambitious and strategic approach to promoting exports. This includes addressing market barriers, global defence of free trade, publishing targeted international sector-specific propositions and delivering focused export campaigns. The department also works closely with our overseas and UK networks and Trade Associations to help businesses identify and exploit export opportunities. These initiatives successfully showcase the UK's life science national strengths to international audiences.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to reduce barriers to global trade for British businesses.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
In addition to our ambitious free trade agreement programme, our latest publicly available figures show that in the year to March 2022, the Department resolved 192 trade barriers in 79 countries; 45 of these alone are estimated to be worth around £5 billion to businesses across the UK over the next five years.
In her first 200 days, the Secretary of State knocked down barriers to global markets worth £11 million every day to UK businesses. As a recent example, the Department resolved a barrier worth £6 million allowing honey exports to Saudi Arabia, unlocking new opportunities for British businesses.