Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the answer of 4 September 2025 to Question 72359 on Economic Situation: Subversion, what progress he has made in simplifying export support services.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has integrated its support for SMEs into the Business Growth Service platform, designed to help businesses across the UK start, scale up, and succeed globally. From tailored market advice and free Export Academy training to UK Export Finance and our on-the-ground network around the world, DBT is making it easier for businesses to navigate global markets, connect to new opportunities, and build the capability to seize them. Businesses can access DBT's wealth of export support via Business.gov.uk.
We continue to review how we can improve our support, and as part of this process, we target resources that will have the greatest impact for UK businesses.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Defence on the scope of the defence exports office.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Secretary of State for Business and Trade continues to have regular discussions with all Cabinet colleagues, including the Secretary of State for Defence.
The defence exports office officially transferred to the Ministry of Defence on 31st of July as confirmed in the Prime Minister’s statement made on the 3rd of June 2025.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many days were lost to sickness absence by civil servants in their Department (a) in total and (b) on average per employee between 5 July 2024 and 4 July 2025.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Sickness absence data for the Civil Service, including departmental breakdowns is published annually, and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/sickness-absence.
The next update will be for the year ending 31st March 2025.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, what steps has he taken to increase support for the Oxford to Cambridge growth corridor.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Industrial Strategy is a 10-year plan to back our strengths and realise Britain’s potential, targeting government investment towards eight-growth driving sectors (IS-8). The strategy sets out how we will deepen our support for the Oxford Cambridge Growth Corridor and its IS-8 strengths such as Life Sciences and Digitial and Technologies. This includes:
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, how much of the £350 million Nations and Regions investment fund will be spent in Huntingdon constituency.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The British Business Bank is committing £2.6bn to drive growth of smaller businesses across the UK’s Nations and Regions. This includes £350 million for two new Investment Funds in East and South-East England to address finance gaps outside traditional hotspots and provide targeted equity and debt finance to growing businesses.
The breakdown of finance allocated to these regions has not yet been announced. The Funds do not include constituency-level allocations, but as with other Nations and Regions Funds, deployment targets will be set at sub-regional level to ensure an equitable spread of finance.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, what progress he has made on creating the new British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) will be implemented from 2027, reducing electricity costs by approximately £35-40/MWh for eligible businesses in foundational industries and high-growth manufacturing sectors identified in the Industrial Strategy.
The Department for Business and Trade has established a new team dedicated to delivering BICS. Officials have begun meeting with stakeholders and a consultation on eligibility for the scheme is planned for later this year.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, what progress he has made on tackling high industrial electricity costs.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Our modern Industrial Strategy will make British industrial electricity costs cheaper with unprecedented new support.
The British Industry Supercharger reduces electricity costs for energy-intensive businesses by c.£24 – £32/MWh, fully exempting them from certain policy costs and offering 60% compensation for Network Costs through the Network Charging Compensation scheme. We have recently consulted on increasing the level of support available through the NCC scheme to 90% compensation, and the Government will respond shortly.
The Government will also continue support for the Energy-Intensive Industries Compensation Scheme to support energy efficiency, decarbonisation, and technological innovation. The scheme offsets 75% of the indirect costs of carbon emissions from the UK Emissions Trading Scheme and the Carbon Price Support Mechanism.
The British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme will be implemented from 2027, reducing electricity costs by approximately £35-40/MWh for eligible manufacturing businesses captured by the Industrial Strategy. A consultation on eligibility for the scheme is planned for later this year.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of increasing support for the Oxford to Cambridge growth corridor on Huntingdon constituency.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Industrial Strategy is a 10-year plan to back our strengths and realise Britain’s potential, targeting government investment towards eight-growth driving sectors (IS-8). There are clusters of the IS-8 sectors across the whole country, and the policy package addresses the biggest constraints to growth highlighted by businesses in these sectors.
To ensure robust and comprehensive monitoring and evaluation of the Industrial Strategy, we have chosen six economic indicators that reflect a range of desirable objectives for the IS-8 and the economy as a whole, which will be tracked at the economy-wide, sector and place level. Monitoring and evaluation of the Strategy will be overseen by the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council who will take a data-led approach.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, what progress he has made on the transition to Connected and Autonomous Mobility.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government’s Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan committed £150 million R&D grant funding to 2030 to support the transition to connected and automated mobility. £18 million of this funding has already been allocated to support supply chain, passenger and freight projects in Belfast, Sunderland, Cambridge, Birmingham, Milton Keynes, and others. £36.5 million will be open for competition this autumn.
Complementing this work, Department for Transport is implementing the Automated Vehicles Act (2024) by 2027 and has recently closed consultations on Misleading Marketing and Safety Principles with another on Advanced Passenger Services closing 28 September.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many of the investible sites due to be delivered via the Strategic Sites Accelerator are in the Huntingdon constituency.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Strategic Sites Accelerator is a new programme, announced as part of the UK’s Industrial Strategy, backed by over £600 million in public funding. The programme is at an early stage of design so the number and we have not yet determined the location of any sites.