Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to his answer of 28 January 2026 to Question 107450, if he will publish a breakdown of the administration and programme expenditure for 2024/5 in the categories of "Subsidies to private sector companies" and "Current grants to persons and non-profit (net)".
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The requested breakdowns are below:
CURRENT GRANTS TO PERSONS AND NON-PROFIT (NET)
Description | Capital DEL (£000) | Resource DEL (Programme) (£000) | Total (£000) |
Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) | 180,149 | - | 180,149 |
Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) | 68,688 | 116 | 68,804 |
Citizens Advice | - | 42,317 | 42,317 |
Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) | 26,044 | 1,915 | 27,959 |
Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) | 24,356 | 531 | 24,887 |
Help to Grow | - | 20,913 | 20,913 |
Consumer advocacy for Energy, Post and cross-sector | - | 19,502 | 19,502 |
National Trading Standards (NTS) | - | 12,518 | 12,518 |
Global Centre of Rail Excellence | 6,865 | - | 6,865 |
Exceptional Regional Growth Fund (eRGF) | 3,000 | 2,651 | 5,651 |
Music Export Growth Scheme | - | 2,983 | 2,983 |
Materials Processing Institute | 2,042 | - | 2,042 |
The British Standards Institution | - | 1,896 | 1,896 |
Convention of Scottish Local Authorities | - | 1,301 | 1,301 |
Other | 2,053 | 6,480 | 8,533 |
| 313,197 | 113,123 | 426,320 |
SUBSIDIES TO PRIVATE SECTOR COMPANIES
Description | Capital DEL (£000) | Resource DEL (Programme) (£000) | Total (£000) |
Energy Intensive Industries (EII) Compensation Scheme | - | 141,679 | 141,679 |
Postmaster Horizon redress-Suspension Renumeration Review-Provision utilisation | - | 8,979 | 8,979 |
Other | - | 23 | 23 |
| - | 150,681 | 150,681 |
CAPITAL GRANTS TO PRIVATE SECTOR COMPANIES (NET)
Description | Capital DEL (£000) | Resource DEL (Programme) (£000) | Total (£000) |
Movement on financial guarantee liabilities-Growth Guarantee Scheme | 62,332 | - | 62,332 |
Exceptional Regional Growth Fund (eRGF) | 34,766 | - | 34,766 |
Steel infrastructure | 15,263 | - | 15,263 |
Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) | 7,930 | - | 7,930 |
Called financial guarantees-Enterprise Financial Guarantee Scheme | 6,099 | - | 6,099 |
| 126,390 | - | 126,390 |
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to his answer of 28 January 2026 Question 107135, if he will publish a breakdown of the £126m in CDEL outturn for 2024/5 in the category of "Capital grants to private sector companies (net)".
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The requested breakdowns are below:
CURRENT GRANTS TO PERSONS AND NON-PROFIT (NET)
Description | Capital DEL (£000) | Resource DEL (Programme) (£000) | Total (£000) |
Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) | 180,149 | - | 180,149 |
Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) | 68,688 | 116 | 68,804 |
Citizens Advice | - | 42,317 | 42,317 |
Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) | 26,044 | 1,915 | 27,959 |
Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) | 24,356 | 531 | 24,887 |
Help to Grow | - | 20,913 | 20,913 |
Consumer advocacy for Energy, Post and cross-sector | - | 19,502 | 19,502 |
National Trading Standards (NTS) | - | 12,518 | 12,518 |
Global Centre of Rail Excellence | 6,865 | - | 6,865 |
Exceptional Regional Growth Fund (eRGF) | 3,000 | 2,651 | 5,651 |
Music Export Growth Scheme | - | 2,983 | 2,983 |
Materials Processing Institute | 2,042 | - | 2,042 |
The British Standards Institution | - | 1,896 | 1,896 |
Convention of Scottish Local Authorities | - | 1,301 | 1,301 |
Other | 2,053 | 6,480 | 8,533 |
| 313,197 | 113,123 | 426,320 |
SUBSIDIES TO PRIVATE SECTOR COMPANIES
Description | Capital DEL (£000) | Resource DEL (Programme) (£000) | Total (£000) |
Energy Intensive Industries (EII) Compensation Scheme | - | 141,679 | 141,679 |
Postmaster Horizon redress-Suspension Renumeration Review-Provision utilisation | - | 8,979 | 8,979 |
Other | - | 23 | 23 |
| - | 150,681 | 150,681 |
CAPITAL GRANTS TO PRIVATE SECTOR COMPANIES (NET)
Description | Capital DEL (£000) | Resource DEL (Programme) (£000) | Total (£000) |
Movement on financial guarantee liabilities-Growth Guarantee Scheme | 62,332 | - | 62,332 |
Exceptional Regional Growth Fund (eRGF) | 34,766 | - | 34,766 |
Steel infrastructure | 15,263 | - | 15,263 |
Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) | 7,930 | - | 7,930 |
Called financial guarantees-Enterprise Financial Guarantee Scheme | 6,099 | - | 6,099 |
| 126,390 | - | 126,390 |
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to table SOPS 1.1 from the Department's 2024/5 Annual Report and Accounts, what categories of spending are covered by the total of £1,497,088,000 covering administration and programme expenditure in Section A - Department for Business and Trade (Departmental Expenditure Limits).
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The breakdown of Estimate line ‘A DBT – Department for Business and Trade (DEL)’ for RDEL outturn of £1,497,088,000 for 2024-25 is:
| DBT Core (£000) | Insolvency Service (£000) | Companies House (£000) | Total (£000) |
Current grants to persons and non-profit (net) | 113,123 | - | - | 113,123 |
Depreciation | 26,664 | 6,421 | 7,974 | 41,059 |
Income from sales of goods and services | (989) | (2,300) | (432) | (3,721) |
Other resource | (60,019) | (43,993) | (203,517) | (307,529) |
Purchase of goods and services | 418,404 | 42,356 | 48,403 | 509,163 |
Rentals | 315 | 277 | - | 592 |
Staff costs | 535,964 | 100,991 | 88,783 | 725,738 |
Subsidies to private sector companies | 150,680 | - | - | 150,680 |
Subsidies to public corporations | 240,951 | - | - | 240,951 |
Change in pension scheme liabilities | 228 | - | - | 228 |
Current grants abroad (net) | 8,622 | - | - | 8,622 |
Current grants to local government (net) | 18,181 | - | - | 18,181 |
| 1,452,124 | 103,752 | (58,789) | 1,497,0871 |
1Difference between this figure and figure in SOPS due to rounding.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, for what reason (a) the number of staff and (b) staff costs have increased at the Competition and Markets Authority since April 2017.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Changes in staff numbers at the Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) since 1 April 2017 have been affected by the expansion of its responsibilities in respect of competition enforcement and merger control following the UK’s departure from the EU; the introduction of new statutory functions and responsibilities, including under the UK Internal Market Act 2020, leading to the creation of the Office for the Internal Market and the Subsidy Advice Unit; and the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, which established the digital markets competition regime. These factors, together with the implementation of civil service pay awards, have also affected staff costs over this period.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to table SOPS 1.2 from his Department's Annual Report and Accounts 2024/5, if he will publish a breakdown of CDEL in Section A - Department for Business and Trade, covering both gross spending and income.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The breakdown of Estimate line ‘A DBT – Department for Business and Trade (DEL)’ for CDEL outturn of £492,483,000 for 2024-25 is:
| DBT Core (£000) | Insolvency Service (£000) | Companies House (£000) | Total (£000) |
Current grants to persons and non-profit (net) | 313,198 | - | - | 313,198 |
Income from sales of assets | (265) | - | - | (265) |
Income from sales of goods and services | (2,075) | - | - | (2,075) |
Net lending to the private sector and abroad | (72,606) | - | - | (72,606) |
Other capital | (13) | - | - | (13) |
Purchase of assets | 15,271 | 4,687 | 19,432 | 39,390 |
Purchase of goods and services | 12,327 | - | - | 12,327 |
Staff costs | 1,556 | - | - | 1,556 |
Capital grants abroad (net) | 150 | - | - | 150 |
Capital grants to persons & non-profit (net) | 1,270 | - | - | 1,270 |
Capital grants to private sector companies (net) | 126,391 | - | - | 126,391 |
Capital support for local government (net) | 10 | - | - | 10 |
Capital support for public corporations | 73,151 | - | - | 73,151 |
| 468,365 | 4,687 | 19,432 | 492,484¹ |
1Difference between this figure and figure in Estimate due to rounding.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, for what reason (a) the number of staff and (b) staff costs have increased at the Financial Reporting Council since April 2017.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has taken on several new responsibilities following its (2016) designation as competent authority for audit, and additional work resulting from the UK's exit from the European Union. These include the registration of additional third country auditors, a new programme of assessing third country audit regulatory equivalence and adequacy, and supporting agreements on the mutual recognition of professional qualifications. The FRC has also put extra resource into the supervision of audits and expediting enforcement proceedings.
Staff costs have increased in direct proportion to the increase in headcount.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, for what reason (a) the number of staff and (b) staff costs have increased at Companies House since April 2017.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Companies House’s staff numbers have increased in recent years as a result of its extensive transformation to strengthen the integrity and transparency of the UK corporate register. The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 has significantly expanded Companies House’s remit, introducing new powers such as identity verification and enhanced investigation and enforcement to tackle misuse of the register and combat economic crime. Alongside enhancements to its digital and data systems, these changes have required additional specialist capability to implement and maintain. These factors, together with the implementation of civil service pay awards, have affected staff costs over this period.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, for what reason (a) the number of staff and (b) staff costs have increased at The Insolvency Service since April 2017.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Insolvency Service has expanded its responsibilities in respect of resourcing the transfer of criminal enforcement functions from the Department, work to distribute payments to creditors from Payment Protection Insurance realisations, and the Insolvency Service's expanded role as it has taken on responsibility for enforcement activity related to the economic crime programme.
These factors, together with the implementation of civil service pay awards, have also affected staff costs over this period.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 12 December 2025 to Question 96808 on Department for Business and Trade: Career Development, how many and what proportion of Senior Civil Servants were rated in each of the box rating categories (a) exceeding, (b) high performing, (c) achieving and (d) partially met in the last year.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The last complete performance year for SCS ran between 1st April 2024 and 31st March 2025. The proportion of ratings against each performance rating (Exceeding, High Performing, Achieving and Partially Met) are detailed below.
Rating | % | Number of SCS |
Exceeding | 14% | 38 |
High Performing | 23% | 63 |
Achieving | 57% | 160 |
Partially Met | 6% | 17 |
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what the total cost was of (a) settlement agreements and (b) special severance payments made to departing staff in the last year.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
For the last financial year, the total cost to the Department of Business and Trade of payments associated with settlement agreements is set out in Annual Report and Accounts. Where relevant, this includes special severance payments that have associated settlement agreements.