Speeches by Thomas.

“I am very happy to think about it. Anything we can do to increase the amount of money being made available to women entrepreneurs is absolutely something we would want to consider. We would want to look at whether there are any wider implications, but in principle, I am happy to look at that as an issue.”

“There are a number of issues involved in that question. It is not that the computer says no in terms of data collection. The computer does not know where to go to get that information because there is no one source of data that can be properly trusted to answer that question in a way that can be transparently and effec…”

“There is absolutely a desire to make that better. Tracking support for women entrepreneurs is a very significant problem. We need to do it, not just in terms of women entrepreneurs but in terms of black and ethnic minority entrepreneurs, and potentially for disabled entrepreneurs.”

“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 be wary of that at this stage because, as I say, we do not have a comprehensive data source to be able to track and challenge those who sign up to the code on whether they are genuinely adhering to its requirements. Business is very determined to find a solution to this; we want to find a solution to this. This…”

“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 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…”

“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…”

“Following the spending review, one of our specific initiatives for angel investment is the launch of the investor pathway programme, which is designed to widen the pool of angels and specifically to reduce the barriers to women, and people from underserved communities more generally, becoming angels. We have made a com…”

“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…”

“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…”

“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.”

“As I understand it, over the last five years—this is obviously before we came into our positions as Ministers—the investing in women code has shown that the code signatories significantly outperform the wider market in supporting female founders. There appears to be evidence that signing up to the code sees a shift in …”

“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…”

“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.”

“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 …”

“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…”

“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…”