Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has made an estimate of the number and proportion of SMEs that have received funding from her Department in East Devon constituency in each of the last three years.

The Department has a wide range of programmes and is pleased that the first of the new Regions and Nations Funds includes East Devon constituency. The new South West Investment Fund launched in July 2023 and has already invested £32,000 into Exeter Eyewear based at Exeter Science Park.

Through its business as usual programmes and Covid support schemes, the British Business Bank facilitated funding to the following number of businesses in East Devon in the last three years:

• 2023: 15 (up to September 2023)
• 2022: 40
• 2021: 254