Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the finding by the British Business Bank that there has been a 28 per cent drop in investment value in the first three months of 2023 compared with the last quarter of 2022.

The value of equity investment grew sharply in late 2020 and throughout 2021, as reported in the British Business Bank’s Small Business Equity Tracker report 2023. It is not surprising that there has been a decline from these unprecedented levels, returning to the values last seen in early 2020. Comparisons of figures from one quarter to the next are unlikely to be meaningful given underlying volatility. The report also notes that “the UK now has a broader, deeper equity finance market that will support its future recovery.”