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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take following reports that many black-owned businesses struggle to find investors.

The Government’s access to finance schemes are open to all businesses and BAME-led businesses benefit from them. The Department’s ministerial team is actively engaging with the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) business community on a regular basis to cover multiple issues, including access to finance.

The Future Fund provides government co-investment to innovative businesses. As of 21 June, the Future Fund had approved 252 applications for investment worth £236 million. Companies with BAME only and mixed ethnicity management teams accounted for over 55% of these applications, valued at £118.5m.

The British Business Bank’s Start Up Loans programme had delivered more than 71,500 loans to entrepreneurs by the end of March 2020, providing more than £586 million of funding. Of these, 20 per cent of the total were to applicants from a BAME background, compared to approximately 15 per cent of the UK’s population who are from a BAME background (2011 census).