Written questions by Conlon.

What steps his Department has taken to encourage small businesses to export in (a) Beckenham and Penge constituency and (b) the UK.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is committed to supporting UK businesses, including those in the Beckenham and Penge constituency, to grow and export.Under the umbrella of the recently announced Business Growth Service, UK businesses can access DBT’s wealth of export support via Great.gov.uk. This comprises an online support offer and a wider network of support including the Export Academy, UK Export Finance and the International Markets network.We are targeting market access barriers in priority markets to open more opportunities for UK exporters and are looking at further proposals to help UK businesses to export more.

What steps he is taking to help tackle late payments to small and medium-sized businesses.

Last month we announced a package of new measures to tackle late payments and long payment terms for small businesses and the self-employed. We will legislate in this parliamentary session to require that large companies include payment performance in their annual reports, driving up transparency on how they pay their suppliers. We will also be consulting on potential primary legislation measures and launching a new Fair Payment Code that rewards companies who pay their suppliers quickly and fairly.