Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what estimate she has made of the UK's trade finance gap; and if she will make a statement.

The Department for Business and Trade does not maintain an estimate of the United Kingdom’s trade finance gap.

However, the government has a comprehensive trade finance offer to businesses.This includes the range of products offered by UK Export Finance (UKEF), the UK’s export credit agency, which has a mission to advance prosperity by ensuring no viable UK export fails for lack of finance or insurance, doing so sustainably and at no net cost to the taxpayer.

In 2021/22, UKEF provided £7.4 billion of support to exporters, supporting 545 companies directly (of whom 81% were small and medium sized enterprises), and thousands more indirectly in supply chains.