Speeches by Thomas.

“I am hoping to have a conversation with the regulators shortly. I am very happy to draw their attention to your particular question. I do not know because I have not yet had the conversation with the FCA, but I suspect that it would be concerned about the data point as well. Obviously, if you mandate someone to do some…”

“I just want to add that the Secretary of State for Business and Trade has announced the creation of the Business Growth Service. It is modelled on the US Small Business Administration, but the ambition is to provide a much quicker service for businesses and entrepreneurs to get access to the advice and support they nee…”

“I would not want to prejudge what the Committee decides to recommend, but if the Committee was to recommend this, we would certainly be happy to look at that proposition again. As I say, in the 12 months we have been in government, we have been looking at what more we can do to increase the total pot in terms of access…”

“I welcome the challenge that the Committee is posing to us in this regard, and it feels well timed. We are 12 months on from the start of the Invest in Women Taskforce, and we think we are making progress in the fund’s development. Perhaps this is a reference to Ms Niblett’s question as well: is the Invest in Women Tas…”

“Not particularly at this stage, but when we began to have internal discussions in the Department and with business about what more we could do to support small and medium-sized businesses, as I have alluded to in a previous answer, one of the biggest dial shifters is to sort out many of the problems around access to fi…”

“Let me start with your initial question on mentorship. The Department launched the Women’s International Network, which hosts annual events for female founders across all parts of the UK. It provides, through a range of events, the opportunity to network and develop skills on exporting and pitching. UK Export Finance s…”

“If we can resolve the access to finance challenges, the £250 billion potential boost to the economy is a huge prize, not just in terms of the individual difference that it would make but collectively to the economy. We always have to be looking at what more we can do in this space. The fact that we have continued the I…”

“It is not ringfenced as such; the British Business Bank tracks where the loans go and, as I say, 40% go to women. We know it is a successful programme, and it is seen positively. That is one of the reasons why we want to expand it because, at the moment, we think it is one of the most effective ways the Government have…”

“In terms of the work of the Department, there is the industrial strategy, and the trade strategy and the small business strategy are very much linked to it. The industrial strategy focused on eight key sectors, and references were made to skills challenges and the need for a much more diverse workforce, particularly ar…”

“It most definitely does.”

“I suppose we have to take that on the chin and take it away. The feedback the Invest in Women Taskforce has had is that it has made a difference, but we need to go an awful lot further. We have been in Government for 12 months now, and as I say, one of the biggest challenges that has been aired with us by businesses ac…”

“Absolutely. There is some work being done in this space. I will probably need to write to the Committee with a bit more detail, but I absolutely recognise the issue.”

“Women entrepreneurs who have a strong business idea, whatever sector it is in, can apply for a loan through the Start Up Loans programme. As part of that start-up loan, they also have access to appropriate advice and support. While those start-up loans are available to everybody, 40% are going to women-led businesses a…”

“You are right, we need to do better in that regard. I hope the programme’s expansion will help us to go further.”

“I support what Baroness Gustafsson says and, to be very boring and practical, the £250 billion figure comes from the Rose review, which reported about five years ago. Obviously, the industrial strategy is a much more recent initiative of the current Government. As Baroness Gustafsson said, there is a range of measures …”

“The straight answer is that I do not know, but I am very happy to take that away, have a look and come back to the Committee.”

“First, we have an existing access to finance programme on debt funding called the Start Up Loans programme, which is not unique to women founders, but approximately 40% of those who benefit from the programme are women founders. We want to expand the Start Up Loans programme significantly. We are working out exactly wh…”

“As you rightly say, more generally beyond just the British Business Bank, there is a problem with data collection in that we do not have a comprehensive database anywhere in the UK to track lending to women entrepreneurs, or indeed to black and ethnic minority entrepreneurs. That is one of the issues we have been discu…”

“We talked about the practical issue of data collection. Specifically on the fund that the Invest in Women Taskforce is putting together, the fund managers have only recently been appointed. That has been one of the things where we had pushback from some funders that are genuinely interested in supporting a women entrep…”

“At London Tech Week recently there was a very well-publicised example of the challenges that women tech entrepreneurs can face. There are mentorship programmes that support women entrepreneurs, but we recognise that we need to continue doing more to provide early-stage finance to women entrepreneurs in that space. I ho…”