Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to support micro enterprises in Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency.

The British Business Bank currently facilitates around £310m of finance in Scotland. This includes over £300,000 in loans to 54 start-up businesses in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency. Since it was established in 2007, Innovate UK has supported 5 Small & Medium sized Enterprises in the constituency with more than £2.5m in grants. This includes funding two micro enterprises with innovation vouchers in 2013 and 2014. In 2015/16, Innovate UK committed to invest £58.3m in 291 innovation projects in Scotland.