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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the First Delegated Legislation Committee of Wednesday 10 April 2019 and the oral contribution of the member for Sefton Central, whether he will publish the responses of the CBI and FSB.

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) were consulted in the preparation of the Technical Notice on State Aid, published in August 2018 to help provide clarity and certainty on Government’s preparations for the unlikely event of the UK exiting the European Union without a deal.

The Technical Notice made clear that the Government was adopting a continuity approach through transposing into UK domestic law existing EU rules on State aid, and the CBI and FSB recognised that this approach was right and responsible. The Government’s continuity approach supports businesses through maintaining well-understood and supported rules to prevent anti-competitive State aid.