Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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 his Department has taken to support manufacturing in Lincolnshire.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Manufacturing is a critical part of our national economy, including in Lincolnshire and South Holland. The Department?works closely with industry to support?manufacturers. For example, we have made £2 billion available in Government-backed finance through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, £2.3 billion via the Bounce Back Loan Scheme, and £4.78 billion through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
We continue to support manufacturing growth through investments in projects such as Made Smarter, the High Value Manufacturing Catapult network, and innovation programmes such as the Automotive Transformation Fund. Across Greater Lincolnshire, the Government is investing?£155.45 million of?Local Growth Funding and £25.8 million from the Getting Building Fund.
In South Holland, £9.4 million has supported the Holbeach Food Enterprise Zone development, £2.4 million towards the Agri-Food Centre, and £1.9 million to upgrade the Holbeach Peppermint Junction. Just last month, the Department for International Trade announced that Holbeach Food Enterprise Zone will be one of nineteen UK High Potential Opportunities marketed to global investors to exploit the area’s expertise in agri-food manufacturing, automation, and robotics. This will help to develop Holbeach as the manufacturing hub of the UK’s Food Valley.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to enable construction work to continue during the November 2020 covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Construction workers play a crucial role in supporting our public services and providing and maintaining safe, decent homes for people to live in.
The Government has been clear that construction activity can continue during the lockdown, where it can take place safely. The Government has worked with construction firms and other stakeholders to develop guidance on safer working on construction sites, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19.
The industry has also developed Site and Branch Operating Procedures for firms and merchants, as well as guidance for small firms and mineral products suppliers. These products provide advice as to how construction firms can apply the Government’s guidance on safer working.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent estimate he has made of the number of loans provided through the Bounce Back Loan scheme.
Answered by Paul Scully
As of 18 October 2020, 1,336,320 applications have been approved for Bounce Back Loans, at a value of £40.20 billion.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that invoices from small and medium businesses are paid on time by (a) Government and (b) non-governmental businesses.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government’s manifesto commits to making sure that businesses are paid on time.
At the end of Q3 2019/20 (the most recent complete set of data):
o 7 of the 16 largest departments were meeting the target of 90% payment within 5 days.
o 13 of the 16 departments were paying at least 95% of their invoices within the 30 day target, with 5 departments achieving 99% or more.
The Government is also taking action to simplify the application process for small businesses wanting to supply to the Government and to increase visibility of subcontracting opportunities. Our ambition is that all departments pay 90% of valid and undisputed invoices from SMEs within 5 days and 100% of valid and undisputed invoices within 30 days.
The Government acknowledges that late payment remains a significant problem for small businesses, who are least able to cover financial shortfalls and find temporary finance more difficult and more expensive to obtain.
We have made it a legal requirement for the UK’s largest businesses to publish information on their payment practises, including the average amount of time taken to pay their suppliers.
Additionally, we will be consulting on strengthening the powers of the Small Business Commissioner to support small businesses that are exploited by their larger partners.
Since launching in December 2017, the Small Business Commissioner has recovered £7.4 million owed to small businesses, as well as naming eight large businesses who had paid their small business suppliers late following the Commissioner’s investigation of a complaint.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) small and (b) medium businesses that have received late payment of invoices in the last five years in (i) Lincolnshire and (ii) the UK.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government’s manifesto commits to making sure that businesses are paid on time.
At the end of Q3 2019/20 (the most recent complete set of data):
o 7 of the 16 largest departments were meeting the target of 90% payment within 5 days.
o 13 of the 16 departments were paying at least 95% of their invoices within the 30 day target, with 5 departments achieving 99% or more.
The Government is also taking action to simplify the application process for small businesses wanting to supply to the Government and to increase visibility of subcontracting opportunities. Our ambition is that all departments pay 90% of valid and undisputed invoices from SMEs within 5 days and 100% of valid and undisputed invoices within 30 days.
The Government acknowledges that late payment remains a significant problem for small businesses, who are least able to cover financial shortfalls and find temporary finance more difficult and more expensive to obtain.
We have made it a legal requirement for the UK’s largest businesses to publish information on their payment practises, including the average amount of time taken to pay their suppliers.
Additionally, we will be consulting on strengthening the powers of the Small Business Commissioner to support small businesses that are exploited by their larger partners.
Since launching in December 2017, the Small Business Commissioner has recovered £7.4 million owed to small businesses, as well as naming eight large businesses who had paid their small business suppliers late following the Commissioner’s investigation of a complaint.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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 help prevent multinational corporations creating private monopolies during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is responsible for investigating competition issues in the UK. The Government has ensured that the CMA has significant powers to investigate and act if it finds that companies are behaving anti-competitively in a market.
The CMA has created a dedicated taskforce to monitor and respond to competition and consumer problems arising from the pandemic. It has also published guidance on its approach to essential business cooperation and merger assessments during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition, the Government laid secondary legislation on 22 June to amend the Enterprise Act 2002 to strengthen the Government’s powers to intervene in certain mergers and takeovers. The Government can now intervene on public interest grounds in order to maintain UK capability to combat or mitigate the effects of public health emergencies. Further, subject to Parliament’s approval of a draft statutory instrument, the Government will be shortly be able to intervene in smaller mergers in three of the most national security sensitive sectors: artificial intelligence, cryptographic authentication and advanced materials.