Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many officials in the Business British Bank sponsoring team within his Department have a professional background in banking regulation; and how that number has changed in each of the last three years.
The Government’s sponsorship team for the British Business Bank is split across the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and UK Government Investments (UKGI). Currently four colleagues on the team have private sector professional experience in the financial services sector (2021: four, 2020: two). The BBB is not (and has never been) a regulated bank, given its wholesale model, i.e. ordinarily delivering through delivery partners, with no direct relationship with SME borrowers. Neither BEIS nor UKGI perform the function of a regulator with respect to BBB.