Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to ensure audit requirements are accessible and affordable for small and mid-sized quoted companies.

Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The government has announced plans to modernise and simplify the corporate reporting framework and expects to publish its Modernising Corporate Reporting consultation shortly. The consultation will consider financial, non-financial, remuneration and corporate governance reporting, as well as proposals to reduce burdens on business and to simplify the preparation and audit of accounts and reports, including for quoted companies. The consultation will also consider the appropriateness of the UK’s framework for reporting and auditing by small and medium-sized companies.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the burden of annual reporting for small and mid-sized quoted companies.

Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The government has announced plans to modernise and simplify the corporate reporting framework and expects to publish its Modernising Corporate Reporting consultation shortly. The consultation will consider financial, non-financial, remuneration and corporate governance reporting, as well as proposals to reduce burdens on business and to simplify the preparation and audit of accounts and reports, including for quoted companies. The consultation will also consider the appropriateness of the UK’s framework for reporting and auditing by small and medium-sized companies.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the British Business Bank supports stocks traded on AIM and Aquis.

Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The British Business Bank’s mission is to drive economic growth by helping smaller businesses get the finance they need to start, scale and stay in the UK.

Through its equity and debt programmes, the Bank supports privately held businesses in the earlier stages of their growth journey, helping to strengthen the pipeline of companies that reach sufficient scale to access public markets including AIM and Aquis.

Once businesses are traded on a public market, they can access liquidity from existing and new investors by issuing new equity or debt securities.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people in England and Wales would have a previous caution or conviction disclosed in a standard DBS check.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) does not hold information about how many people overall in England and Wales have a previous caution or conviction nor the specific nature of those offences which would determine whether they would be disclosed on Standard DBS checks.

Only upon receipt of an eligible DBS application does the DBS access an extract of the Police National Computer (PNC) and establish whether conviction or caution information is relevant and requires disclosure in line with the relevant rules on disclosure.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of (a) basic, (b) standard, and (c) enhanced checks undertaken by the DBS in England and Wales are undertaken on individuals from an ethnic minority background.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) does not collect ethnicity information as part of its checks application process.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the role of tax incentives in boosting investment in small and mid-sized quoted companies.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

This government is committed to supporting founders and innovative companies to start, scale, stay and list in the UK.

At Budget we increased the generosity of our enterprise tax reliefs, to support scaling companies raise finance and attract top talent, and committed to being a better customer to innovative businesses, through the use of advance market commitments and wider procurement reforms.

We have also increased the financial capacity of the British Business Bank, enabling them to invest £5 billion into scaling companies over this Parliament.

The Government also launched a Call for Evidence on Tax Support for Entrepreneurs, examining how the tax system supports investment in high growth companies and exploring potential options to go further. The consultation closed on 28 February 2026.

We have already delivered an ambitious set of reforms to make it easier for firms to list and stay on UK markets, and capital markets are a core pillar of the Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy, launched at Mansion House.

The UK is a hub for growth capital, with UK growth markets providing funding to growing companies from across the world. Over the last 10 years, over half of all capital raised on European growth markets was raised on AIM.

The government maintains a range of targeted tax reliefs for growth market shares, supporting capital raising for quoted companies, and investors in those shares. This supports growth in the broader UK economy.

Collectively these measures support companies access investment across their life cycle, alongside supporting access to government contracts and talent. We will monitor and evaluate the impact of these measures.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of its current policies in supporting entrepreneurship and the scale-up of UK businesses.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

This government is committed to supporting founders and innovative companies to start, scale, stay and list in the UK.

At Budget we increased the generosity of our enterprise tax reliefs, to support scaling companies raise finance and attract top talent, and committed to being a better customer to innovative businesses, through the use of advance market commitments and wider procurement reforms.

We have also increased the financial capacity of the British Business Bank, enabling them to invest £5 billion into scaling companies over this Parliament.

The Government also launched a Call for Evidence on Tax Support for Entrepreneurs, examining how the tax system supports investment in high growth companies and exploring potential options to go further. The consultation closed on 28 February 2026.

We have already delivered an ambitious set of reforms to make it easier for firms to list and stay on UK markets, and capital markets are a core pillar of the Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy, launched at Mansion House.

The UK is a hub for growth capital, with UK growth markets providing funding to growing companies from across the world. Over the last 10 years, over half of all capital raised on European growth markets was raised on AIM.

The government maintains a range of targeted tax reliefs for growth market shares, supporting capital raising for quoted companies, and investors in those shares. This supports growth in the broader UK economy.

Collectively these measures support companies access investment across their life cycle, alongside supporting access to government contracts and talent. We will monitor and evaluate the impact of these measures.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to support entrepreneurship and the transition of high-growth UK businesses from start-up to scale-up.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

This government is committed to supporting founders and innovative companies to start, scale, stay and list in the UK.

At Budget we increased the generosity of our enterprise tax reliefs, to support scaling companies raise finance and attract top talent, and committed to being a better customer to innovative businesses, through the use of advance market commitments and wider procurement reforms.

We have also increased the financial capacity of the British Business Bank, enabling them to invest £5 billion into scaling companies over this Parliament.

The Government also launched a Call for Evidence on Tax Support for Entrepreneurs, examining how the tax system supports investment in high growth companies and exploring potential options to go further. The consultation closed on 28 February 2026.

We have already delivered an ambitious set of reforms to make it easier for firms to list and stay on UK markets, and capital markets are a core pillar of the Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy, launched at Mansion House.

The UK is a hub for growth capital, with UK growth markets providing funding to growing companies from across the world. Over the last 10 years, over half of all capital raised on European growth markets was raised on AIM.

The government maintains a range of targeted tax reliefs for growth market shares, supporting capital raising for quoted companies, and investors in those shares. This supports growth in the broader UK economy.

Collectively these measures support companies access investment across their life cycle, alongside supporting access to government contracts and talent. We will monitor and evaluate the impact of these measures.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans her Department has to improve access to finance for small and mid-sized quoted companies.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The UK’s capital markets play a key role in delivering on the government’s growth mission. We have already delivered an ambitious set of reforms to make it easier for firms to start, scale, list and stay on UK markets, and capital markets are a core pillar of the Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy, launched at Mansion House.

The UK is also a hub for growth capital, with UK growth markets providing funding to growing companies from across the world. Over the last 10 years, over half of all capital raised on European growth markets was raised on AIM.

The government maintains a range of targeted tax reliefs for growth market shares, supporting capital raising for listed businesses, and investors in those shares. This supports growth in the broader UK economy.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information his Department holds on the link between individuals holding a criminal record and (a) unemployment and (b) PIP claimants.

Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip

The Ministry of Justice does not hold specific information on the link between having a criminal record and (a) unemployment or (b) Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claimants.

We know that employment can reduce the likelihood of reoffending by up to nine percentage points in the year following release. This is why the Government has committed to supporting ex-offenders into work, including through launching regional Employment Councils, which bring businesses together with prisons, probation and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to support offenders in the community.

We recognise that having a criminal record can impact on someone’s employment opportunities, but it should not be an automatic barrier to employment. The criminal records disclosure framework is designed to balance rehabilitation with maintaining safeguarding and public protection principles. Our guidance for employers makes clear that recruitment decisions should be based on a balanced assessment of relevance, context, and risk.

DWP also does not hold data on the criminal record of claimants to PIP as this, together with their employment status, does not form part of the eligibility criteria for the benefit. We continue to work across Government to improve data-sharing and build a clearer picture of people’s employment support needs.