Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of funding disparities on the growth potential of female-led and minority-led businesses; and what steps he is taking to work with public investment institutions to close that gap.

According to data from research firm Beauhurst, the proportion of equity finance to female-led teams was stark at 2% in the first half of 2024, in comparison to 86% for all-male teams. To directly increase this, the government-backed Invest in Women Taskforce has launched a £255 million fund to invest in female entrepreneurs through female investors.

To help increase the availability of funding to minority-led businesses, the British Business Bank launched the Community ENABLE Funding programme in November 2024, expected to issue loans worth up to £150 million over the next 2 years.

Further, the Small Business Access to Finance call for evidence, launched on 13 March 2025, considers the difficulty of accessing finance for female and minority-led businesses. We will take forward further work in those areas once we have properly considered the results of the call for evidence.