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 support women starting and growing businesses.

All Government’s business support schemes are open to eligible businesses including female entrepreneurs.

The Start-Up Loans programme has provided more than 31,000 loans, worth over £245m, to female entrepreneurs as of October 2020.

Additionally, we continue to work with the private sector to deliver the eight initiatives of the Rose Review. Great progress has been made over the past year with joint NatWest and Be the Business launching the ‘Rose Review Female Entrepreneurs Mentoring Programme’ on 27 October.