Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many loans between £10 million to £25 million the British Business Bank lent to small and medium-sized enterprises in each of the last five years.

The British Business Bank does not finance businesses directly. It is a government-owned economic development bank that makes finance markets for smaller businesses work more effectively, allowing those businesses to prosper, grow and build UK economic activity. It is not a bank in a conventional sense, but instead provides funds and guarantees to private sector partners, enabling them to finance a greater number of smaller businesses (either through debt or equity). It uses economic evidence to design programmes that address market failures affecting smaller businesses across the economy. It also works to improve smaller businesses’ awareness of the finance options available to them. The British Business Bank’s programmes are already supporting almost £3.5bn of finance to more than 56,000 smaller businesses and are participating in a further £5.5bn finance to small mid-cap businesses (as at end December 2016).