Written questions by Wild.

When he intends to respond to the correspondence from the hon. members for North West Norfolk and Brigg and Immingham of 17 March 2026 regarding tariffs on imports of UAN.

The Government received correspondence regarding an application for a duty suspension as part of the 2025-2026 business suspension application window. We cannot comment on the application as the assessment process is currently ongoing, but we expect to announce the outcome as soon as possible.The Government can confirm receipt of the correspondence and will respond when the suspensions process is complete.

What steps his Department is taking to encourage economic growth in the (a) pubs and (b) hospitality sectors.

The Government recognises the vital role that hospitality businesses play in local communities and the economy. That’s why we’re investing £440,000 with Pub is The Hub to help rural pubs diversify, aiming to support rural communities, create new jobs and services.The Government invited views and evidence to aid development of a modern, proportionate and enabling licensing system. A Call for Evidence ran for four weeks until 6 November. This attracted a significant number of responses and work is now underway to analyse these. These reforms form part of the Small Business Strategy, which is designed to tackle late payments, improve access to finance and reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens.We are also creating a fairer business rates system, including permanently lower rates for retail, hospitality and leisure properties with a rateable value under £500,000. We continue to work closely with the sector through the Hospitality Sector Council to address challenges.

What recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of regulatory costs on the pub sector.

The Government is committed to easing regulatory burdens for businesses like pubs in the UK, creating the space they need to grow, innovate and thrive. We work closely with the Hospitality Sector Council to improve the productivity and resilience of hospitality businesses by co-creating solutions to the issues impacting business performance.This is why we launched the licensing taskforce last April, a joint effort between Government and Industry with aims to reduce the administrative burdens the UK licensing regime places on our highstreets. The Government invited views to help shape these reforms and the Call for evidence ran for 4 weeks and ended on the 6 November. This attracted a significant number of responses and work is now underway to analyse these.Additionally, to help ease cost pressures on pubs, from April 2026, eligible retail, hospitality, and leisure properties with rateable values below £500,000 will benefit from permanently lower business rates multipliers and alcohol duty has been reduced on qualifying draught products which is approximately 60% of the alcoholic drinks sold in pubs.

Pursuant to the Answer of 27 June 2025 to Question 61227 on Department for Business and Trade: Public Expenditure, how many lines of activity in his Department were considered as part of the zero based review.

At Spending Review 2025, the government conducted the first zero-based review (ZBR) of department budgets in 18 years, with every line of spending scrutinised to ensure value for money.Through the zero-based review, the Department for Business and Trade carried out a line-by-line review of its current budgets. The review involved differing levels of granularity depending on the type and size of expenditure under review.To ensure consistency in approach, cross-government guidance set expectations for the level of granularity each review should consider, recommending that departments review all spending within individual programme expenditure - at a minimum reflecting any lines of spending in excess of £1m per annum.Savings identified through this process will support delivery of the government's commitment for all departments to deliver at least 5% savings and efficiencies by 2028-29.

Pursuant to the Answer of 17 June 2025 to Question 59412 on Government Departments: Reviews, if his Department will publish the line by line review of its spending conducted for the Spending Review 2025.

DBT is committed to meeting the 5% savings and efficiency target, with SR funding allocations agreed on this basis.These funding allocations – informed by the findings of the ZBR – are the first step in a wider plan to finalise budgets for different projects and programmes, with any necessary savings decided through that process. The savings taken forward will be subject to the normal rigorous business planning processes, and in-year financial management.

With reference to section 2 of the policy paper entitled New approach to ensure regulators and regulation support growth, updated on 31 March 2025, what the annual operating cost is of the British Hallmarking Council .

The British Hallmarking Council currently employs one part time member of staff.In 2024 the annual operating cost of the British Hallmarking Council was £112,650.

With reference to section 2 of her Department's policy paper entitled New approach to ensure regulators and regulation support growth, updated on 31 March 2025, when the administrative costs of regulation baselining exercise will conclude.

The government has committed to cut the administrative costs of regulation to business by 25% by the end of this Parliament. To do this, we must determine the cumulative administrative costs of regulation which has not been done for 15 years. At that time, the exercise took approximately 18 months, which was consistent with efforts of other countries that have undertaken similar exercises.We are working in partnership with businesses to understand their real-life experiences of regulatory compliance to establish a robust regulatory baseline. We will publish an update on this baseline exercise and our expected timelines in due course.

With reference to section 2 of the policy paper entitled New approach to ensure regulators and regulation support growth, updated on 31 March 2025, how many people are employed by the British Hallmarking Council.

The British Hallmarking Council currently employs one part time member of staff.In 2024 the annual operating cost of the British Hallmarking Council was £112,650.

With reference to section 2 of her Department's policy paper entitled New approach to ensure regulators and regulation support growth, updated on 31 March 2025, what the estimated saving is from merging the Office of the Regulator of Community Interest Companies and Companies House.

The Office of the Regulator of Community Interest Companies (“CICs”) (“the Regulator”) plays a crucial role in maintaining the CIC model as an effective form of social enterprise. By exploiting the considerable overlap between the Regulator and Companies House, and the close working relationship that already exists between the two, the Government intends to fully integrate the Regulator’s functions into Companies House as part of wider plans to streamline the UK’s regulatory environment. Both organisations are funded by fees, and there are no expected direct savings.

What steps his Department is taking to encourage foreign direct investment.

Investment is at the heart of the government’s growth mission, increasing the number of good, well-skilled jobs and improving productivity across the country. The Department for Business and Trade works with all investor-facing business units to deliver support for the highest-value, highest-impact FDI projects into the UK. DBT officials work on a daily basis with businesses of all sizes to ensure a close partnership between government and business, and to showcase the multitude of investment opportunities the UK has to offer. The Industrial Strategy Green Paper (published 14 October) sets out a credible, 10-year plan to deliver the certainty and stability businesses need to invest in UK. The government also hosted an international investment summit in October 2024 where nearly 38,000 jobs across the country were announced alongside a record-breaking £63 billion of investment.

How many businesses have been supported by the British Business Bank since 2014.

The British Business Bank’s recently published Impact Report shows that in 2023 alone the Bank funded 23,100 businesses. Data on the number of businesses supported by the Bank since its inception in 2014 is intended to be published in 2025.

What steps he is taking to increase private investment as a proportion of GDP.

Investment is at the heart of the government’s growth mission, increasing the number of good, well-skilled jobs and improving productivity across the country. The Department for Business and Trade works with all investor-facing business units to deliver support for the highest-value, highest-impact FDI projects into the UK. DBT officials work on a daily basis with businesses of all sizes to ensure a close partnership between government and business, and to showcase the multitude of investment opportunities the UK has to offer. The Industrial Strategy Green Paper (published 14 October) sets out a credible, 10-year plan to deliver the certainty and stability businesses need to invest in UK. The government also hosted an international investment summit in October 2024 where nearly 38,000 jobs across the country were announced alongside a record-breaking £63 billion of investment.

When the independent appeals process for the Horizon Shortfall Scheme will start accepting applications.

In September, the Government announced that it would establish an HSS appeals process to provide individuals with a chance to have their claims reassessed through a DBT-run process. We are working with representative groups and the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board to make sure that that the process is fit for purpose and that claims can be assessed and resolved quickly. We will announce further details as soon as we can.

What steps he is taking to reduce the cost of regulation for businesses.

It is essential that we identify areas where the costs of regulations may be unnecessarily high and burdensome for businesses. Best practice analysis of regulatory interventions and reforms, as well as monitoring and evaluating the success of interventions will help us understand these issues further. The Department for Business and Trade is in the process of developing an ambitious regulatory reform agenda to ensure that any future regulation or regulatory reform will work for businesses and consumers, and aids economic growth. Our proposals will be set out in due course.

If he will make an estimate of the total annual cost of regulation to UK businesses.

In 2023, the previous government repealed the Business Impact Target (BIT) through the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act. The BIT was the principal mechanism through which government made an estimate of the total annual cost of regulation to UK businesses. In place of that, the reformed Better Regulation Framework encourages an earlier and more thorough assessment of impacts of individual regulatory proposals. This government will use the framework to ensure that new regulations achieve their objectives, with the minimum cost to business and support economic growth. We will set out further proposals for regulatory reform in due course.