Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to measure the potential impact of the Help to Grow scheme on business productivity.

Monitoring and evaluation of the Help to Grow: Management programme is a priority for the government and is key to understanding the impacts and success of the programme.

So far, we have published six evaluation reports covering up to March 2023. We will continue to regularly publish reports during the lifetime of the programme.

Ipsos Mori, our independent evaluation partner, will be assessing the early impacts of Help to Grow Management in line with best practice, as productivity impacts can take 3 – 7 years to be measurable.

Our Year Two evaluation report shows that approximately 90% of surveyed SME leaders felt they had increased awareness of factors that drive business and productivity growth, and two thirds of surveyed SME leaders said they had made changes to the way they manage, organise and operate their business.