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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to help small booksellers compete with online retailers beyond the reliefs implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The government is committed to ensuring digital markets, such as the e-commerce market, remain competitive and deliver positive outcomes for small businesses, consumers, and society. Our digital competition consultation set out a vision for the UK’s new pro-competition regime for digital markets and the powers of the new Digital Markets Unit, which is already operating in non-statutory form inside the CMA. The regime will enable the UK’s competition authorities to tackle the unique challenges of fast-moving digital markets and will aim to boost competition and innovation by tackling the sources and effects of market power in digital markets. The consultation closed on 1 October 2021 and we are now carefully considering the responses.

At budget, my Rt hon Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced further business rates relief of 50% in 2022/23 for eligible retail, hospitality, and leisure businesses worth almost £1.7 billion and we are freezing the multiplier for 2022/23 saving businesses £4.6 billion over the next five years.