The Business & Trade Select Committee Inquiry into Small Businesses

The Business and Trade Select Committee scrutinises the policy, spending and administration of the Department for Business and Trade and its public bodies. The Department for Business and Trade are the government department for economic growth and is made up of MPs from across political parties and is chaired by Liam Byrne MP. The Committee are currently undertaking an inquiry into small businesses.

At the Autumn Budget 2024, the government announced its intention to publish a Small Business Strategy “setting out the government’s vision for support for small businesses”. This will be published in 2025.

To ensure the Committee and Parliament can scrutinise this policy effectively, the Business & Trade Committee are conducting an inquiry to develop recommendations for the strategy and to set criteria against which to judge the Government’s progress.

In particular, they will assess how small business success can contribute to the Government’s overall objectives of raising the rates of economic growth, increasing disposable income and closing regional inequalities.

Thank you to all members that took part in the inquiry survey! It is important that the views of as many hospitality and catering businesses as possible are heard to ensure that the Government’s Small Business Strategy understands the needs of our sector.

We submitted our response to the inquiry on the 16/07/25, outlining the challenges and possible solutions to the barriers to growth the sector faces at this time and will update you when we hear more form The Select Committee.

It is always useful for us to hear your views and get feedback on what support you need from local and national government, please send your feedback to [email protected] and [email protected]