Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-03-17.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to support female start-up company founders in the light of the study by MIT, Harvard and Wharton Universities in 2014 showing that males are 60 per cent more likely to get funding.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

The UK is a great place to start a business, with an increase of 760,000 businesses between 2010 and 2014. There are more women-led businesses in the UK than ever before – around 1 million (20%) of all Small and Medium sized Enterprises. But we know more needs to be done to ensure we create the right environment for women to start and grow their own businesses.

Women can benefit from the full range of wider business support available from government. This includes Start-Up Loans which provides funding and intensive support to new entrepreneurs (38% of Start-Up Loans have been awarded to women); and the New Enterprise Allowance which provides a business mentor and access to financial support for Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants who want to start their own business (37% of NEA loans have been awarded to women).

We have developed a specific web page on the Business is Great website for potential and existing female entrepreneurs to find out what help is available to them (http://www.greatbusiness.gov.uk/women-in-enterprise/). We are also currently undertaking research to increase our understanding of the best way to reach female entrepreneurs.

“