Speeches by McDougall.

“You can see that running through it already, where you get signposted on skills, exports, tax advice and all sorts of things within that. As Ros was intimating, a lot of the advice that has been elsewhere and has been valuable to people has been built into it.”

“We are looking at how to improve the digital offer within it. We are looking at how we can incorporate AI tools into it so that people can find and get more tailored advice more quickly within it. I do not know if Ros or Isobel want to add anything about future plans for development of the business growth service.”

“It is a point well made. A lot of people will have, perfectly understandably, given up in the past when they have been searching for information in the Government space, because they end up jumping from website to website and it just feels exhausting. You do not have time, so you let the opportunity go by. On Thursday …”

“I am glad that you said that it is the responsibility of two other Departments before I got to it. You are absolutely right about people reporting that they feel that it is a cumbersome process. I know that colleagues in those two Departments, for example, are ensuring that there is a single digital place to do that, a…”

“Skills England is working hard to try to simplify this, through, for example, the simplification around V-levels and things like that, where, instead of having hundreds of confusing options, we try to narrow it down so that people can find the assistance that they need.”

“No, it is not always as clear as it should be. Access to skills is consistently rated as one of the top barriers to growth. We are investing an additional £1.2 billion to try to deal with that. We are putting in place all sorts of new and more flexible training products for SMEs, but, if you do not know where to go to …”

“Yes, I would be very happy to.”

“Can I hand over to my official? I should say that I was not there during the writing of this, but Isobel was.”

“There is the £100 million investment in female-led funds through the invest in women committee, which was at one of the first meetings that I had after I was appointed. The British Business Bank is doing a lot of work to make sure that the finance that it underwrites and increases access to is more available not just t…”

“That is a good point well made, and perhaps something that we need to review. There may sometimes be an assumption that women are often better represented at the SME level than other levels of business. Maybe there was an assumption that it was in the share price. I know that you know, because I sat and listened to you…”

“I am very happy to go away and look at that, but you make a good point, which is that we have to make sure that investing in these things is something that is seen as being on the right side of the column.”

“I have not seen that correspondence. I am very happy to look at that.”

“That is a really important point. I know that you are very aware of the work that DBT does in terms of industries in distress. There is a strong argument that you are making about pre-empting that and having a proper mapping of supply chains and vulnerabilities there, which I am very happy to take away and work with Mi…”

“My colleague Minister McDonald has been working to make sure that the support goes all the way through the supply chain. On the point on cyber-security, I met with the digital adoption taskforce this morning to talk about this. If you are Jaguar Land Rover or Marks & Spencer, a cyber-attack can be extraordinarily costl…”

“I know that you have just had a session on higher-end crime. This is something that is primarily led by the Home Office. For our part, we are working in co-ordination with it on tackling retail crime. In addition to what the Home Office is doing on law enforcement by making the assault of a retail worker a specific cri…”

“Again, I am going to be very careful not to stand on my DESNZ colleagues’ toes. As with DESNZ, as with Treasury and as with all bits of Government, we are constantly making the case for small businesses.”

“We will be having ongoing discussions on that, but I would be happy to keep the Committee updated on it.”

“Again, this would be a matter for colleagues in DESNZ. It is the occupational hazard of being Small Business Minister that I do keep referring to other people.”

“It is £5 billion across hundreds of communities across the country, so it is sizable, notwithstanding that.”

“We have a whole suite of advice for small businesses, which is about helping them make the right choices to lower their energy costs. For example, in the west midlands at the moment, we are also piloting our energy advice service, which combines grants for energy efficiency and things that would reduce energy prices, a…”