Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of small businesses on economic growth.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for 5.7 million businesses, representing over 99.9% of the business population, and make a substantial contribution to UK economic activity. They generate around 51% of UK private sector turnover (£2.8 trillion) and employ around 16.9 million people, equivalent to 60% of private sector jobs.

DBT analysis suggests that accelerating SME growth by just 1 percentage point a year could deliver £320 billion to the UK economy by 2030.