Written questions by Byrne.

How many requests were made by Companies House to query information (a) sent for acceptance to and (b) already published on the register using the new enforcement powers introduced in March 2024.

Since 4 March 2024 Companies House has been using its new powers to challenge, question and reject documents and to make enquiries about documents that have already been registered.No figure for filings that have been queried prior to before registration is available.To the year ending 4 March 2025, Companies House removed:82,600 registered office addresses,66,900 officer addresses,55,100 PSC addresses,11,200 other documentsPersonal information was redacted from 49,800 incorporation documents. A further have been removed from the register. These actions have affected 100,400 companies in total.

For what reason the launch of the service to register Companies House authorised agents has been delayed.

Companies House is transforming its technology infrastructure in order to implement measures under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023.The decision was taken to postpone the full launch for a short period to allow time to address the issues and ensure the service will continue to operate to a high standard for customers.

Whether Companies House has key performance indicators to measure the quality of information on the registry.

Work is underway to develop key performance indicators and establish baselines to measure the quality of information on the Companies House register. The need for this work has been triggered by the implementation of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act (ECCTA).The key performance indicators will include assessments of compliance levels, adherence to data standards and measurement of the value of the information on the Register.Companies House are also investigating ways to estimate false, misleading and inaccurate information in line with the Registrar’s objectives under ECCTA. This will be based on the threats outlined in the Strategic Intelligence Assessment.

If he will make an estimate of the number of people who will be affected by the increase in the national minimum wage in each (a) local authority and (b) parliamentary constituency in (i) Birmingham and (ii) Solihull broken; and what the average uplift to annual wages will be for people earning the minimum wage.

The recently published Impact Assessment estimates the number of workers who will be affected by the increases in the National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage, broken down by region and country. More granular estimates by local authority and parliamentary constituency are subject to greater data reliability issues due to survey response rates.A full-time worker earning the National Living Wage will see their gross annual earnings rise by £1,400 per year. A full-time worker earning the 18-20 National Minimum Wage will see their gross annual earnings rise by £2,500 per year.

With refence to section 1.3 2. of his policy paper entitled The Atlantic Declaration, updated on 21 June 2023, what progress he has made on establishing an outbound investment mechanism.

The Department for Business and Trade is keeping the potential national security risk posed by outward direct investment in sensitive sectors under review, and continuing to engage with businesses and financial stakeholders on this issue. In May, the Cabi...

What steps his Department plans to take to maximise the value for money from public funding for the steel industry over the next five years.

The Government is developing a steel strategy, in partnership with the steel sector and trade unions, that will set out a long-term vision for steel and create opportunities for public and private investment.We have committed to providing up to £2.5bn for...

What estimate his Department has made of the potential impact of public funding for the steel industry on levels of private-sector investment in that industry in each of the next five years.

The Government is developing a steel strategy, in partnership with the steel sector and trade unions, that will set out a long-term vision for steel and create opportunities for public and private investment.We have committed to providing up to £2.5bn for...

How much private investment he expects from the additional funding allocated to the aerospace sector in the next five years.

The Budget confirmed £975m over 5 years to the Aerospace sector. This provides continued stability and confidence for industry to invest in long-term R&D projects – delivering economic growth, supporting high skilled jobs across all parts of the UK, a...

What steps his Department plans to take to ensure value for money from additional funding allocated to the aerospace sector in the next five years.

The Budget confirmed £975m over 5 years to the Aerospace sector. Industry led applications for R&D co-investment from the ATI Programme enter a competitive process. Competition for funding is fierce and only the best projects are selected: those that ...

With reference to his Department's publication entitled Invest 2035: The UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, published in October 2024, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of economic perfo

The methodology for determining the eight growth-driving sectors is outlined in the Invest 2035 Green Paper. This included assessing historic trends since 2019-20, such as gross value added and productivity, at Standard Industrial Classification-2 level w...

What steps his Department plans to take to ensure value for money from additional funding allocated to the automotive sector in the next five years.

The Budget committed over £2bn to 2030 for zero-emission vehicle manufacturing and their supply chains. This will build on the current Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) and Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) programmes to drive economic growth and suppor...

How much private investment he expects from the additional funding allocated to the automotive sector in the next five years.

The Budget committed over £2bn to 2030 for zero-emission vehicle manufacturing and their supply chains. This funding will build on previous ATF and APC programmes which have leveraged over £6bn of investment from the private sector so far. We will continu...

On how many occasions the Export Controls Joint Unit has initiated a Change in Circumstances Review assessment since January 2020; and what the destination country was in each case.

The Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU) has in place an established process for responding at pace to changing conditions in a country where the UK has previously granted export licences, and where those licences remain extant.The FCDO advises DBT on the sit...

When he plans to publish the UK Strategic Export Controls Annual Report 2023.

The UK Strategic Export Controls Annual Report 2023 is due to be published by the end of this year. It will be laid before Parliament and made available on Gov.uk at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/united-kingdom-strategic-export-controls-annua...

What (a) training and (b) support his Department plans to provide to businesses in respect of the new Office for Trade Sanctions Implementation.

The Office for Trade Sanctions Implementation (OTSI) will support businesses to meet their obligations under the UK’s trade sanctions regime through issuing guidance and engaging with a range of sectors and businesses.OTSI has already undertaken a major p...

Whether the Office for Trade Sanctions will publish an annual report.

The Office for Trade Sanctions Implementation intends to publish an annual review covering an overview of its activities across the year, following the model set by similar units such as the Office for Financial Sanctions located in HM Treasury and the Ex...

What (a) country and sector policy specialist, (b) legal, (c) administrative, (d) compliance, (e) enforcement, (f) industry engagement, (g) budgetary and (h) other resources he has allocated to the Off

The Office for Trade Sanctions Implementation (OTSI) has recruited people with a wide range of professional experience from across government and the private sector to fulfil OTSI’s responsibilities of policy, licensing and enforcement of certain trade sa...

What his export controls policy priorities are.

The Government’s export controls regime protects global security by restricting who has access to sensitive technologies and capabilities, ensuring UK exports do not contribute to WMD proliferation, a destabilising accumulation of conventional weapons, or...

On how many occasions and for what reasons MNG Maritime was granted extensions to the deadline to return to the UK the weapons stored in the Vessel Based Armouries it operated following his Department’

In the event that a licence for a Vessel Based Armoury (VBA) is revoked, it is the responsibility of the Private Maritime Security Companies which make use of the affected VBA to arrange transfers of controlled goods to alternative, and appropriately lice...

What his policy is on companies moving their registration overseas when they have been found in breach of export licence conditions and the Government has imposed a requirement that they return the exp

The registration of a business is generally a matter for its owners. However, if they are UK legal or natural persons active in the Maritime Anti-Piracy sector, they are still subject to UK Export Licensing legislation. The only requirement under existing...