Employment

(asked on 28th August 2026) - View Source

Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, with reference to the press release issued by UK Export Finance entitled Public bodies mobilise £50 billion to drive UK economic growth and support over 802,000 jobs, published on 15 July 2026, how many of the jobs supported or sustained were (a) newly created and (b) existing jobs retained.


Answered by
Blair McDougall Portrait
Blair McDougall
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) (Jointly with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
This question was answered on 8th September 2026

In the 2024/25 and 2025/26 financial years, the support included in the press release comprised (a) £25.5 billion from UK Export Finance (UKEF) , (b) £16.1 billion from the British Business Bank (BBB), (c) £5.6 billion from the National Wealth Fund (NWF) and (d) £2.2 billion from Innovate UK (IUK). These figures use the appropriate measure for each institution and include finance provided directly, private capital invested alongside public funding and lending supported through guarantees.

The 802,740 jobs supported through with this activity comprised 155,000 reported by UKEF, 40,740 by the NWF and 607,000 by the BBB. The institutions use different methodologies, so a robust aggregate breakdown on the basis requested is not available.

The four institutions do not all hold funding data specifically for Lancashire on a consistent basis. Across the 2024/25 and 2025/26 financial years, IUK awarded £8,502,932 through competitions to businesses and project participants in Lancashire. Between October 2024 and end-March 2026 NWF has invested £455m in the North West. Post-code level data about deals supported by the NWF can be found online at: Mapping our impact across the UK. UKEF’s provision of support is demand-led. It also has an Export Finance Manger covering Lancashire who can provide support and information for local businesses looking to export.

UKEF does not hold details of the proportion of exporters supported at constituency or county level. Full details of the businesses it supports each year are published online at: UK Export Finance: business supported - GOV.UK. The support that UKEF provides extends beyond its immediate customers. For instance, recently published research by Oxford Economics (available online at: UK exporters boost economy, as new study reveals major impact of export credit on UK industry - GOV.UK) shows that there are 115,000 businesses in the supply chains of businesses directly supported by UKEF.

Reticulating Splines