Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent estimate she has made of the number of small businesses that have (a) relocated and (b) part-relocated their operations to the EU due to export costs in (i) Wales, (ii) England, (iii) Scotland and (iv) Northern Ireland.

We do not have the information you are asking for, however, what we can say is that 94% of all businesses that responded to the ONS business survey in the 2 weeks to the 3rd September were not planning to open any new branches or subsidiaries in the EU in the next 12 months.

We understand that SMEs have had to adapt to the new post-Brexit environment, and that’s why we are ensuring they have what they need to do so, including comprehensive guidance on GOV.UK, and support from UK Export Finance (UKEF) and the Export Support Service (ESS).

Now we have left the single market, we can turn our focus to the rest of the world, where in the 12 months to June 2023 trade is up 38% in current prices compared to pre-pandemic (2018) levels.