Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what estimate he has made of the total amount of funding provided to businesses by UK Export Finance; and what proportion of that support was provided to SMEs in each of the last five years.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The value of support provided by UK Export Finance (UKEF) for exports, including the percentage share of support for SMEs, is shown in the table:
Financial Year | Business supported, £m | Value of support for SMEs, £m | Proportion of the value of support for SMEs, % |
FY13/14 | 2,272 | 199 | 9% |
FY14/15 | 2,730 | 122 | 4% |
FY15/16 | 1,793 | 155 | 9% |
FY16/17 | 2,966 | 89 | 3% |
FY17/18 | 2,530 | 195 | 8% |
UKEF offers a range of short-term products to help SMEs fulfil export contracts. The typical value of each facility provided through this range is under £2m but enables SMEs to fulfil export contracts of greater value than the support they receive. UKEF has supported £2.5bn in export contracts for SMEs through this product range over the last 5 years. In 2017-18, 77% of all companies UKEF supported were SMEs.