Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how much of the funding allocated for Tradeshow Access Programmes remained unspent in 2019-20.

There was an underspend of £1.2m against Tradeshow Access Programme budgets in 2019-20.

The underspend arose predominantly within the last two months of the financial year, the busiest period of the tradeshow calendar, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the cancellation of many shows from February 2020 onwards.

We continue to work hard with business and trade bodies to support TAP stakeholders, and successful applicants, to attend those agreed tradeshows that are internationally accessible, under HMG travel guidelines, at the point they commence.