Future of Financial Services

Lord Bhatia Excerpts

Wednesday 11th November 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Agnew of Oulton (Con)]

My Lords, we absolutely accept that small businesses are the backbone of the wealth-creating part of our economy. One of the answers I gave earlier was looking at the listing rules in this country to see whether we can make it more accessible for smaller firms. I mentioned that I think that you have to issue a full prospectus for anything in excess of €8 million, whereas in the US it is $50 million, so we certainly will be looking at that.

On a slightly unrelated element, but connected to SMEs, the rules reform that we are working on now, post transition, on procurement opens up an enormous opportunity for SMEs, because it will allow us to set our own rules and not be controlled by the EU regime. That covers some £290 billion-worth of government expenditure each year, and we will be making sure that SMEs get a good slice of that.

[Lord Bhatia (Non-Afl) [V]]

[Inaudible.]

[The Deputy Speaker (Lord McNicol of West Kilbride) (Lab)]

You are on mute. Please unmute. No, you are still on mute. We will move on to the next speaker and come back to the noble Lord, Lord Bhatia, if we have time. I call the next speaker.