Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many calls made to the Business Support Helpline (England) were unanswered in each of the last 12 years.

A call to the Business Support Helpline (England) is recorded as unanswered when the customer leaves the queue after going through the Interactive Voice Response process but before an adviser is able to answer, without leaving a voicemail to, for example, request a call back. The total number of unanswered calls to the helpline is only available from 2020. In 2020, with exceptionally high demand particularly in March due to COVID-19, 10,729 calls were unanswered (12% of total calls received). In 2021, there were 459 unanswered calls (2% of total calls), and 711 in 2022 (3% of total calls).