Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what discussions he has had with British start-up technology companies on access to the European Investment Fund and other future funding arrangements for the sector after the UK leaves the EU.

Ministers and officials from across the Government are speaking with a variety of stakeholders from all sectors, including start-ups in the technology sector, to understand business concerns and priorities after EU exit. These discussions will inform our negotiating position.

Details of Ministerial meetings are published in the Department’s Quarterly Transparency Returns, which are made publicly available on GOV.UK.

UK projects that are in the process of securing finance from the European Investment Bank (EIB), and its subsidiary the European Investment Fund (EIF), have been affected as the EIB Group undertakes due diligence.

The Chancellor and senior Treasury officials have been working very closely with EIB Group management to resolve these issues. The UK believes that UK firms should be able to access EIB and EIF funding on equal terms as other Member States while the UK remains a member of the EU, as the Chancellor set out in his Mansion House Speech.

The government has put in place measures to ensure that UK firms which may no longer be able to access EIB Group finance receive the investment they need. The UK Guarantees Scheme will continue to support UK infrastructure investment and will, for the first time, offer guarantees for the construction phase of a project. The British Business Bank has also been authorised to raise the limit on its investment in individual projects from 33% to 50% and the government will bring forward planned investments in venture capital that were previously announced in the 2016 Autumn Statement.