Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps he has taken to encourage (a) working parents and (b) working mothers to start their own business.

The Government is committed to supporting entrepreneurs and removing barriers for would-be entrepreneurs. To support this aim, the Government has extended the Start-up Loans Programme until 2021 which will provide up to 10,000 loans to potential entrepreneurs to help them start a business.

The parental pay and leave system gives working parents the choice and flexibility they need to balance work with the demands of starting and growing a family.

For mothers in particular, in response to the Alison Rose Review on female entrepreneurship, the Government has announced its ambition to increase the number of female entrepreneurs by half by 2030, equivalent to nearly 600,000 additional female entrepreneurs. To support this, we have launched the Investing in Women Code which has 18 signatories from the financial services sector who are committed to improving female entrepreneurs’ access to tools, resources and finance.