Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what the cost of the Small Deals Initiative has been to the public purse in each year since its establishment.

UK Export Finance (UKEF) operates at no net cost to the taxpayer. UKEF’s Smaller Deals Initiative is staffed by civil servants employed on standard terms and conditions by UKEF. No costs outside of UKEF’s normal core business have been incurred since the Initiative’s inception.

The Smaller Deals Initiative works on the same “no net cost to the taxpayer” basis as UKEF generally. It collects premiums from transactions supported in exchange for taking on risk on behalf of the taxpayer and to cover the Initiative’s administrative costs.