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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps, if any, they are taking to support and increase street trading.

The Government supports entrepreneurs and vibrant town centres by promoting local markets, for instance through the successful Love Your Local Market campaign and Small Business Saturday. Officials in the Department for Communities and Local Government chair the Retail Markets Forum to facilitate discussion with experts from across the markets industry and help understand how best to support it. The rules relating to the licensing of street traders gives local authorities the discretion to decide how to regulate street trading in their own area. This includes decisions such as where street trading can take place and overseeing the licence application process.