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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to (a) encourage entrepreneurship and (b) support small business expansion.

The Government is committed to supporting SMEs through exemption of new regulations where possible. This exemption was recently extended to businesses with up to 500 employees, potentially reducing red tape and bureaucracy for up to 40,000 more businesses.

The British Business Bank is supporting over £12.2bn of finance to over 96,000 SMEs. Schemes include Start-Up Loans and the Recovery Loan Scheme.

The Government has also acted to reverse the National Insurance rise, which will save small businesses £4,200 on average.