Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has had recent discussions with the Minister for Women and Equalities on taking steps to help improve accessibility to (a) entrepreneurship and (b) business ownership for people with protected characteristics in Kingston upon Hull North constituency.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is fully committed to supporting businesses and creating the best conditions for enterprise so that everyone, whatever their background, has the means and know-how to start and grow a business.
We are supporting early-stage entrepreneurs from all backgrounds through the Start-Up Loans Company which provides funding and intensive support to new entrepreneurs.
Since 2012, 40% of Start Up Loans have gone to women, worth over £344m and 20% of loans worth 187m have gone to Black, Asian, and Ethnic-minority business and 220 SMEs in Kingston Upon Hull North have received loans to the value of £1,708,761 (as of November 2022).
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has had recent discussions with the Minister for Women and Equalities on taking steps to improve accessibility to entrepreneurship and business ownership for people with protected characteristics in Lancaster and Fleetwood constituency.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is fully committed to supporting businesses and creating the best conditions for enterprise so that everyone, whatever their background, has the means and know-how to start and grow a business.
We are supporting early-stage entrepreneurs from all backgrounds through the Start-Up Loans Company which provides funding and intensive support to new entrepreneurs.
Since 2012, 40% of Start Up Loans have gone to women, worth over £344m and 20% of loans worth 187m have gone to Black, Asian, and Ethnic-minority businesses. 102 SMEs in Lancaster and Fleetwood have received Start Up Loans to the value of £866,495 as of November 2022.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has had recent discussions with the Minister for Women and Equalities on taking steps to improve accessibility to entrepreneurship and business ownership for people with protected characteristics in Sefton Central constituency.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is fully committed to supporting businesses and creating the best conditions for enterprise so that everyone, whatever their background, has the means and know-how to start and grow a business.
We are supporting early-stage entrepreneurs from all backgrounds through the Start-Up Loans Company which provides funding and intensive support to new entrepreneurs. Since 2012, 40% of Start Up Loans have gone to women, worth over £341m and 20% of loans worth 183m have gone to Black, Asian, and Ethnic-minority business (as at October 2022). One hundred and sixty SMEs in Sefton Central have received loans to the value of £1,688,512 as of October 2022.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many business deaths there were in (a) the UK and (b) each of the G7 countries excluding the UK in the last quarter.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
In Q3 2022, there were 95,315 business closures in the UK.
Source – Business demography, quarterly experimental statistics (ONS)
The table below provides the latest figures on the number of business exits for each of the G7 countries, where available:
Country | Business exit | Time period |
Canada | 118,736 | Q3 2021 |
France | Data not available | |
Germany | 155,233 | Q1 2022 |
Italy | 66,814 | Q2 2022 |
Japan | Data not available | |
United States | 390,000 | Q2 2021 |
Source - Timely Indicators of Entrepreneurship by Enterprise Characteristics - Number of enterprise exits (OECD)
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield)
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.
Answered by Dean Russell
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.
Asked by: Craig Williams (Conservative - Montgomeryshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support (a) community based businesses, (b) social enterprises and (c) trading charities in contributing to growth in the local economy.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government strongly supports the social enterprise sector’s contribution to society and the economy.
Social enterprises create jobs for those excluded from the labour market, directly address social challenges and build social capital within communities.
Policy relating to social enterprise is devolved. In England the government will continue to support the sector through access to finance including social investment, growing participation in public services and effective regulation.
Work is also underway to meet the commitments made in the Levelling Up White Paper around:
encouraging social organisations and entrepreneurship to flourish in left-behind places and generating evidence on what works;
building on and augmenting existing support for the sector;
encouraging the next generation of social entrepreneurs.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential contribution of cooperatives and mutuals in his industrial plan for the country.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Co-operatives and mutuals contribute to the UK economy by offering a different form of running a business, with a focus on delivering the services their members and communities need.
The Government has improved the business environment for co-operatives and mutuals through the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 which cut through the legal complexity involved in running a co-operative, improving their competitiveness. The ability of co-operatives to raise £100,000 of withdrawable share capital per member, increased from £20,000 in 2014, has ensured that co-operatives have the flexibility to raise funding and compete more effectively with companies.
Furthermore, following the interest rate cap rise from two per cent to three per cent in 2014, credit unions have expanded into higher-risk markets and provide an important alternative to high-cost lenders. The prize-linked savings scheme, which was offered through credit unions, increased individuals’ financial resilience and raise awareness of credit unions. Credit unions have also benefited from the distribution of dormant asset funding by Fair4All Finance, including their £5m COVID-19 resilience fund.
At Budget 2021, the Government also announced the £150m Community Ownership Fund. This will allow community groups to bid for up to £250,000 matched-funding to help them buy or take over local community assets at risk of being lost and run them as community-owned businesses, supporting co-operative entrepreneurship. In the first round of the fund, the Government funded 38 bids, totaling £10.07 million. Twenty-six of these projects were in England totaling £7.6 million; six in Scotland totaling £1.2 million; three in Wales totaling £460,000; and three in Northern Ireland totaling £780,000. Second round bids are currently being assessed and funding decisions will be announced in due course.
The Government will continue to support the growth of the mutuals sector. Through the Financial Services and Markets Bill, the Government will enable credit unions in Great Britain to offer a wider range of products and services, thereby supporting the growth, diversification, and development of the sector.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans she has to help to grow (a) cooperatives and (b) social businesses.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government strongly supports the co-operative sector and social businesses’ contribution to society and the economy. Co-operatives and mutuals contribute to the diversity and resilience of the economy with their democratic structure, their emphasis on the long-term interests of their members and their local focus and commitment. Social businesses create jobs for those excluded from the labour market, directly address social challenges and build social capital within communities.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport works with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and other relevant departments to ensure that government policy helps cooperatives and social businesses to grow and flourish.
The Government has cut the red tape facing the sector through the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 and subsequent regulations. More recently, the government has reaffirmed our commitment to the sector through the £150 million community ownership fund, which supports co-operatives and community-owned businesses to take over valuable and viable local assets at risk of closure.
DCMS’s support for social businesses includes:
£485 million of dormant assets funding that has been allocated to social investment, which to date has supported thousands of charities and social enterprises across England to grow their impact and scale their operations
developing the Social Value Model, in partnership with Cabinet Office - requiring social value to be evaluated in all central government procurement
launching the VCSE Contract Readiness Fund - inviting bids to enable VCSE organisations to compete alongside other organisations and increase their participation in public service procurement
Work is also underway on plans to meet the following commitment from the Levelling Up White Paper:
“The UK Government will consider how best to encourage social organisations and entrepreneurship to flourish in left-behind places across the UK, building on and augmenting existing support, generating evidence on what social enterprises need to do to thrive in disadvantaged places, and encouraging the next generation of social entrepreneurs.”
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps he has taken to help ensure that opportunities for business growth are assessed.
Answered by Jane Hunt
Government monitors and evaluates our business support programmes to ensure that opportunities for business growth are assessed. In addition to this independent sources have found:
[1] Global Entrepreneurship Monitor – 2021 Global report
[2] OECD, Most recent FDI statistics for OECD and G20 countries
[3] Tech Nation (2020), UK Tech for a Changing World (https://technation.io/report2020/#11-global-investment-trends) https://technation.io/report2021/#key-statistics
* businesses with 10+ employees with either turnover or employment growth of over 20%
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of a co-operative business incubator for growing the social business sector.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government recognises the value of co-operatives. They offer a different form of running a business, with a focus on delivering the services their members and communities need. Social enterprises have an important role to play in levelling up the country. As set out in the Levelling Up White Paper (LUWP) the Government is committed to:
o supporting social organisations and entrepreneurship to flourish in left-behind places and generating evidence on what works
o building on and augmenting existing support for the sector
o encouraging the next generation of social entrepreneurs.
The Government is committed to having a thriving social businesses and co-operative sector and helping to support current and establish further businesses which serve local communities up and down the country. At Budget 2021, the Government announced the £150m Community Ownership Fund. This allows community groups, including social businesses and cooperatives, to bid for up to £250,000 matched-funding to help them buy or take over local community assets at risk of being lost and run them as community-owned businesses. As of May 2022, 39 Projects across the UK have been announced to benefit from the fund.
The Government has provided significant support to the co-operative sector in recent years and has sought to improve the business environment for co-operatives and mutuals. The Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 helped cut through the legal complexity involved in running a co-operative, improving their competitiveness. The ability of co-operatives to raise £100,000 of withdrawable share capital per member, increased from £20,000 in 2014, has also ensured that co-operatives have the necessary flexibility to raise funding and compete more effectively with companies.
Data published by the FCA in May 2021 showed that there was a net increase of 108 co-operative and community benefit societies in 2020-2021, compared to a net decrease of 204 societies in 2016-2017.
Business incubators and accelerators play a crucial role in helping businesses start and grow, including social businesses and cooperatives. In 2019, BEIS published the research paper Impact of Business Incubators and Accelerators in the UK, which reported that most start-ups who used an incubator or accelerator considered them to have been significant or even vital to their success.