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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the regulation and supervision of the British Business Bank.

The British Business Bank (BBB) is a company of which the Secretary of State is the sole shareholder. The directors of the company are responsible for supervising its activities as set out in the Companies Act. A Shareholder Framework Document governs the relationship between the shareholder and the BBB. This includes provision for a shareholder representative on the board.

The BBB is not (and has never been) a regulated bank, given its wholesale model, i.e. ordinarily delivering through delivery partners (c.130), with no direct relationship with SME borrowers. These delivery partners are typically regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and, in the case of banks, the Prudential Regulation Authority. The BBB itself does not carry out regulated activities.