Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he plans to take to improve his Department’s support for UK SMEs.

The Department is committed to improving support for SMEs, working cross-government to remove barriers to growth, ensuring that SMEs have access to resources and expertise needed to develop and scale. For example, over the last 2 years, Innovate UK has awarded £5.2bn funding to more than 7,000 businesses spread across the UK, of which 86% were SMEs

We are also working to back UK tech startups through a range of policies that address the issues the sector cares about. This includes harnessing the benefits of AI, investment, skills, regulation, data and procurement.