{"value":{"id":1909796,"askingMemberId":5109,"askingMember":null,"house":"Commons","memberHasInterest":false,"dateTabled":"2026-05-29T00:00:00","dateForAnswer":"2026-06-02T00:00:00","uin":"4751","questionText":"To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to improve access to scale-up finance for employee-owned businesses.","answeringBodyId":214,"answeringBodyName":"Department for Business and Trade","isWithdrawn":false,"isNamedDay":false,"groupedQuestions":[],"answerIsHolding":false,"answerIsCorrection":false,"answeringMemberId":5076,"answeringMember":null,"correctingMemberId":null,"correctingMember":null,"dateAnswered":"2026-06-08T00:00:00","answerText":"<p>We are improving access to scale-up finance for UK businesses, including the growing number of employee-owned businesses, through the British Business Bank (BBB). In November, we agreed the BBB’s five-year plan, which sets out how it will focus on scale-up finance, investing in more growth-stage funds, making more direct investments into strategically important scale-ups, and taking more risk by providing the first capital in deals supporting emerging technologies. We have also placed the Growth Guarantee Scheme on a longer-term footing, which will help more smaller businesses, including employee-owned businesses, to scale and grow.</p>","originalAnswerText":"","comparableAnswerText":"","dateAnswerCorrected":null,"dateHoldingAnswer":null,"attachmentCount":0,"heading":"Business: Investment","attachments":[],"groupedQuestionsDates":[]},"links":[{"rel":"self","href":"/Questions/1909796","method":"GET"}]}