Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to encourage company founders from BAME backgrounds to secure venture capital funding.

I meet the Ethnic Minority Business Group regularly to understand the challenges and opportunities faced by ethnic minority entrepreneurs across the UK, including access to finance. Better data collection is key and the British Business Bank has piloted ethnicity data collection from venture capital firms, the findings from which will be published later this year.

To help founders from ethnic minority backgrounds secure venture capital funding, the British Business Bank’s Finance Hub offers impartial information to help businesses get ‘investor ready’ including articles on how businesses can identify and access the finance they need to realise their growth ambitions.