Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what proportion of the British Business Banks’s economic capital limit has been earmarked specifically for (a) micro-businesses and (b) businesses in the devolved nations.

The Secretary of State and the Chancellor have jointly set the British Business Bank a strategic mandate over the next five years. This includes a new mission to drive economic growth by helping smaller businesses get the finance they need to start, scale and stay in the UK. While the mandate itself does not specify numbers, types of businesses, location, or sectors, the Bank has an excellent track record of addressing disparities in investment within the UK, with the Bank’s Impact report 24/25 showing that 24,000 businesses have newly benefited from finance supported by the Bank and 84% of businesses were outside London. The Bank will continue to report regularly on the impact of its interventions.