Asked by: Andrew George (Liberal Democrat - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 26 February 2025 to Question 34047 Small Businesses: Training, what steps his Department is taking to support SMEs to adopt AI; and whether this support includes management-practice support to maximise productivity gains.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
To ensure AI is widely adopted by businesses and workers across the economy, government is working with 11 industry partners to provide 7.5 million workers with essential AI skills by 2030.
The Help to Grow: Management scheme, which helps SME leaders with management skills to help boost productivity, already includes a module on digital transformation.
Additionally, the SME Digital Adoption Taskforce has set out ten recommendations to drive SME digital and AI adoption, including: a new public-private initiative for SMEs, evidence gathering on firm-level financial support for digital, and economy-wide reforms. We will report on progress in Spring 2026.
Asked by: Andrew George (Liberal Democrat - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what (a) trading rules and (b) tariffs on trade apply between the UK and settlements within the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Secretary of State for Scotland
The UK Government has a clear position that Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal under international law. There are clear risks related to economic and financial activities in the settlements, and we do not encourage or offer support to such activity. Goods produced in these settlements are not entitled to benefit from preferential tariff treatment under the UK's current trade agreements with the Palestinian Authority and Israel.
The overseas business risk guidance, available on gov.uk, provides information for UK operators on how goods from Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories should be labelled.
Asked by: Andrew George (Liberal Democrat - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will increase the powers of the Grocery Code Adjudicator.
Answered by Justin Madders
We had a Westminster Hall Debate last week, where a number of issues were raised, he will know that we are undertaking our fourth review of the Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA). I would encourage him and other members to contribute to that. We are considering the other points that have been made in that debate, and we welcome comments in the review as well.