Gareth Thomas MP: speeches

Speeches

• 18 Dec 2024 · Post Office Redress and Funding · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman makes a perfectly reasonable point—it is something I feel acutely. I have met a number of the sub-postmasters who used the Capture software and were treated very badly as a result by the Post Office, so I am acutely conscious of our collective responsibility to those individuals and their families. Some of the sub-postmasters who used Capture software have already passed away, which only underlines the points he and I have made. I can assure the House that we will work at pace. We are working with the Post Office, and have asked the organisation to go through its records so that we can identify, inasmuch as we can, how many people were potentially victims of Capture. We are also supporting the work of the Criminal Cases Review Commission in looking at whether convictions are safe.

• 12 Dec 2024 · Post Office Closures · Hansard source

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  No decisions have been taken on the future of any directly managed branches, including in Chester-le-Street in my hon. Friend’s constituency. The Post Office continues to work with local communities, and others, to consider how best to meet the need for post office services in a local area. The Government set minimum access criteria to ensure that 99% of the UK population live within 3 miles of a post office, and those Government-set access criteria ensure that, regardless of changes, services remain within reach of all citizens.

• 12 Dec 2024 · Post Office Closures · Hansard source

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  I recognise the significance of the post office in my hon. Friend’s constituency, as indeed I recognise the significance of post offices in my constituency and across the UK. It is important to maintain access to post office services as they play a crucial role in the high street. That is why we are determined to work with the Post Office to strengthen the network, as I alluded to earlier.

• 12 Dec 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend will be aware that the Chancellor of the Exchequer recently announced £20.4 billion in investment for research and development for the next year, which will help to drive even more of the type of technological investment that she rightly champions. We are also working with small businesses to encourage them to adopt more digital technologies through the digital adoption taskforce.

• 12 Dec 2024 · Co-operatives · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right to underline the positive community impacts that co-operatives, mutual businesses and social enterprises can have not only on our high streets, but in our communities more generally. We recently announced a significant increase in the capital available to the British Business Bank, and that has enabled us to give £150 million of additional support to community banks, or community development finance institutions, as they are officially known. That will help drive more lending to community businesses, potentially including the one he set out, but if there is anything I can do to support the initiative, I would be happy to meet him to discuss it.

• 12 Dec 2024 · Co-operatives · Hansard source

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  The Government are committed to doubling the size of the mutuals and co-op sector. The creation of Great British Energy will help drive a significant expansion in the number of energy co-operatives, while work to modernise co-op, credit union and mutual law to drive expansion was recently announced by Treasury colleagues. We will work particularly closely with the recently established mutual and co-operative business council on this agenda. We will bring forward further proposals in due course.

• 12 Dec 2024 · Creative Industries · Hansard source

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  I cannot follow the impressive nature of that question, but I can tell my hon. Friend that in the Budget my right hon. Friend the Chancellor confirmed a new independent film tax credit, which will help to enable the successes that he has alluded to in his constituency and the surrounding area to be spread, potentially, across the country. That will allow more businesses to set up and generate growth and wealth for our country.

• 12 Dec 2024 · Creative Industries · Hansard source

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  The creative industries are a huge force for good in our country. They were responsible for 2.4 million jobs last year, and more than £124 billion for our GDP in 2022. They are one of eight growth sectors in our industrial strategy. We are working closely with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and across Government, to identify what more we can do to draw out even more of the potential growth that Britain’s creative businesses can offer.

• 12 Dec 2024 · Hospitality Businesses · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady will know that the Chancellor of the Exchequer committed in the recent Budget to a series of reforms to business rates, including permanently lower business rates for hospitality businesses from 2026-27. I welcome the hon. Lady’s support for that measure.

• 12 Dec 2024 · Hospitality Businesses · Hansard source

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  Hospitality businesses are at the heart of our communities and are vital for economic growth. The Government are creating a fairer business rates system, reducing alcohol duty on qualifying draught products and reforming the apprenticeship levy to support businesses and boost opportunities. We are addressing strategic issues for the hospitality sector relating to high-street regeneration, skills, sustainability and productivity, and that work will be supported by the publication of the small business strategy Command Paper next year.

• 12 Dec 2024 · Hospitality Businesses · Hansard source

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  I am sure that the right hon. Gentleman will have noticed that in the Budget, the Chancellor more than doubled the employment allowance to £10,500. That will mean that more than a million small businesses, many of them hospitality businesses, will see no increase in their national insurance liabilities next year.

• 12 Dec 2024 · High Streets: Government Support · Hansard source

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  I think the best advice I could give to businesses in the right hon. Member’s constituency is to never vote Conservative again. His and his party’s idea of good economics in Government seems to be to create a huge fiscal hole and leave it to the next Administration to fix it. We are working at pace to try to tackle the difficult economic inheritance that he and his colleagues in Government helped to create. Measures such as the industrial strategy and the decisions we have taken in the Budget—albeit some are difficult—will help to bring back economic stability to this country. In the long run, that will help businesses in his constituency and, indeed, in constituencies up and down the country.

• 12 Dec 2024 · High Streets: Government Support · Hansard source

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  Yes, we are determined to maintain and, indeed, strengthen the post office network. I suspect that the hon. Member will recognise that we inherited a Post Office with huge problems, which we are working with the new leadership of the Post Office to begin to tackle. We are looking at what new commercial opportunities there may be for the Post Office, and banking appears to be the most significant one. We are also working with the Post Office to identify some of its infrastructure problems, not least in developing a replacement for the Horizon scheme.

• 12 Dec 2024 · High Streets: Government Support · Hansard source

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  Working across government with mayors, local authorities and—crucially—local communities, we are beginning to tackle antisocial behaviour and crime, reforming business rates, working with the banking industry to roll out 350 banking hubs, stamping out late payments, empowering communities to make the most of vacant properties, strengthening the post office network and reforming the apprenticeship levy.

• 12 Dec 2024 · High Streets: Government Support · Hansard source

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  Despite the considerable cold, I very much enjoyed my recent visit to Gateshead town centre, and I was impressed by the dynamism of the businesses that he and I met at his instigation in the railway quarter. One of the things we are determined to do is to increase access to finance for small businesses up and down the country. That is why we have provided over £1 billion across this year and next year for the British Business Bank, particularly to drive access to finance for small businesses such as the ones to which he introduced me.

• 12 Dec 2024 · High Streets: Government Support · Hansard source

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  I commend my hon. Friend not only for his work recently on Small Business Saturday, but as the leader of Derby council in driving the town centre regeneration work that he mentioned. We are determined to establish a small business growth service to provide better support and information to small businesses so that entrepreneurs in this country can take advantage of new powers to set up small businesses on the high street, perhaps capitalising on the high-tech, high-growth sectors of the economy to which Derby has access, and in that way making sure that we see benefits from the industrial strategy not just for bigger businesses, but for smaller businesses.

• 12 Dec 2024 · High Streets: Government Support · Hansard source

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  I commend my hon. Friend on her work with the Ramsgate empty shops action group. Her experience on her high street is sadly echoed up and down the country—under the Conservative party, vacancy rates on our high streets shot up. High street rental auctions, which are the new powers that my hon. Friend alludes to, will help local councils to bring vacant units back into use, working with local communities. That will hopefully help to drive co-operation between landlords and councils and make town centre tenancies more accessible and affordable. We are encouraging local authorities to take advantage of those powers. As I suspect my hon. Friend already knows, colleagues in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government are looking to do further work in this space.

• 12 Dec 2024 · UK Exports · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right that we have to do more to help small businesses in particular, and businesses in general, to export more overseas. That is one of the key, but often understated, ways in which we can deliver growth for this country. As part of our work on a new trade strategy and a small business strategy, we are looking at further proposals to help our businesses export more.

• 12 Dec 2024 · UK Exports · Hansard source

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  We are looking at working with other GCAP partners. I was in Italy last month to discuss the further potential of GCAP, and other work that we can do with the Italians in this space, but that will not affect the issue about which the hon. Gentleman is specifically concerned.

• 12 Dec 2024 · UK Exports · Hansard source

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  We recently launched Unlock Europe, a new export programme designed to help UK businesses build stronger relationships with European customers. Last month, in Manchester, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State launched a new pilot scheme, alongside the mayor and his team, that offers businesses in the north-west more support in selling their products and services overseas. We are determined to do more, and will bring forward further plans in due course.

• 4 Dec 2024 · Hospitality Sector: Eastleigh · Hansard source

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  I appreciate the opportunity to serve under your chairmanship, Dame Siobhain, and in the usual way I congratulate the hon. Member for Eastleigh (Liz Jarvis) on securing this important debate. I thank her for her invitation to visit Eastleigh; I do not know specifically when I will have the opportunity to do so, but I will certainly consider it when I am in the Southampton area. Her constituency sounds like a particularly attractive part of the UK—if she will forgive me for saying so, almost as attractive as Harrow West, where we also have some great hospitality businesses. The hon. Member rightly alluded to the significance of Small Business Saturday this week, which provides a great opportunity to celebrate the small hospitality businesses that bring such joy and life to the communities of all our constituencies. I will say more about Small Business Saturday in due course. This debate matters because the hospitality sector is hugely important to the UK economy, employing around 3.5 million people and generating around £140 billion of economic activity. It contributes around £54 billion in revenue per annum. The sector is important to local economies because it helps to create vibrant places that people want to visit, work in and live around. It is important in supporting wider social objectives, providing accessible jobs, community cohesion and welcoming spaces for people to enjoy. The hon. Member referenced the work of the landlady, Lorraine, as just one example of the difference that hospitality makes in so many of our communities. In short, hospitality is the backbone of our high streets and the lifeblood of many of our communities. I meet regularly with hospitality businesses, and only yesterday hosted a meeting of the Hospitality Sector Council, so I hear first-hand the pressures facing hospitality businesses. A hospitality business, like any other business, can only prosper and grow on the firm foundation of economic stability. Unfortunately, economic stability is certainly not what we inherited when we came into power in July. At the end of October, at the Budget, the Chancellor made decisions that she did not want to have to make, but however painful those decisions may have been in the short term, they were the right decisions and were necessary to fix the foundations of what most in the House recognise was a broken economy. The Budget also reflected the need to protect smaller businesses—for example, by more than doubling the national insurance contribution employment allowance from £5,000 to £10,500. It will provide relief for about 1 million small businesses. It also set out the steps that we will take to address the iniquities of an antiquated system of business rates that is particularly unfair for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses. The hon. Member for Eastleigh rightly referred to that in her contribution. Not only is the current system of business rates unfair, but it disincentivises investment, creates uncertainty and places an undue burden on our high streets. The Budget delivers on our manifesto commitment to make hospitality pay a fairer share of business rates, with a permanently lower multiplier from 2026. Until then, we have extended the retail, hospitality and leisure relief at 40%. In addition, the business rates multiplier will be frozen at 49.9p for small businesses, and we intend to introduce permanently lower multipliers for retail, hospitality and leisure properties from 2026-27. The hon. Member for Eastleigh will also be aware that my right hon. Friend the Chancellor published a discussion paper on business rates reform in order to create a wider debate with the business community about business rates and possible additional ways to reform the system. The proposed business rates reform has been supported by UKHospitality, and the Treasury widely consulted the sector before making those proposals. Securing access to finance can be a big issue for many businesses, including those in hospitality, and to that end, the Government have provided more than £1 billion in 2024-25 and 2025-26 for the British Business Bank, aiming to improve access to finance for small businesses, including more than £250 million each year for small business loans programmes. The British Business Bank also supports community development finance institutions—community banks. Recently, I was lucky enough to visit Dhillon’s Brewery Spire Bar in Coventry. After the owner initially struggled to access mainstream sources of finance, he approached the Coventry and Warwickshire Reinvestment Trust, a community development finance institution, which stepped up and provided the funds needed for the brewery and bar to survive and prosper. That is just one example of the way in which we are taking action to improve access to finance, helping to grow the economy so that we can deliver a fairer, more prosperous and healthier society, and help the hospitality sector, in particular, to grow. Growth is the Government’s No. 1 mission, and our new industrial strategy and small business strategy are both central to that. The small business strategy Command Paper, which the Chancellor announced we will publish next year, will set out our plan to boost scale-ups, grow the co-operative economy, create thriving high streets, make it easier to access finance, help break into overseas and domestic markets, build business capabilities and provide a stronger business environment. The hon. Member for Eastleigh mentioned the need to do more to support high streets, and I am sure she will be delighted to know about the high street rental auctions policy, which colleagues in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government have brought into effect. It allows local councils to require landlords to open up high street facilities that have been closed down so that hospitality or other businesses can take advantage of those spaces and bring renewed life to our high streets. In the coming months, we will be setting out further measures linked to the need to invest in our high streets and support small businesses more generally. We also consulted on an industrial strategy Green Paper, which we published in October, setting out our vision for a modern industrial strategy. With our growth mission, those two strategy papers will ensure we create the conditions for all businesses to invest and grow, and for consumers to be able to spend with confidence. They will help to break down barriers to growth regionally and nationally. Jobs backed by employment rights fit for a modern economy are at the heart of our plans. In October, we published the Employment Rights Bill, and we will consult to ensure we strike the right balance between the needs of businesses and fairness for workers. Local growth plans will be a cornerstone of our place-based approach. Locally owned 10-year strategies will set out how mayoral combined authorities will use their devolved powers and funding to drive growth in their regions. That will help to deliver the investment and growth at a local level that our country needs. Hospitality businesses are not only important to supporting growth in our towns, villages and cities; they are also an integral part of our rural communities. They provide accessible jobs and places for people and communities to come together. In fact, the social value of hospitality is arguably at its greatest in rural and more remote areas. In all areas, hospitality provides opportunities for people to develop important life skills, as well as opportunities for those wanting a fresh start. To enhance those opportunities, we have established Skills England, a new partnership with employers at its heart. It will transform the existing apprenticeship levy into a more flexible growth and skills levy, which will be better suited to support businesses and boost opportunities. As I mentioned earlier, yesterday I hosted a meeting of the Hospitality Sector Council, which exists to co-create solutions that will help deliver resilience and growth in the hospitality sector. It has done some great work in improving the longer-term resilience of hospitality businesses. I will of course continue to work closely with it as we deliver on our priorities for wider investment and growth, and for reinvigorating our high streets in villages, towns and cities across the UK. The hon. Member for Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire (Mr MacDonald) referred to the lack of business rates relief in Scotland. That is clearly a matter for the Scottish Government, but we will continue to have conversations with all the regions and nations about what else we can do to deliver growth in our country. A couple of other issues have been brought to our attention. Hospitality businesses on our high streets often face challenges with antisocial behaviour and crime. We are increasing the number of police officers on our streets and in our town centres to bring down antisocial behaviour and crime, and make it easier for people to enjoy the many benefits that the hospitality sector brings. The hon. Member for Eastleigh raised energy costs. We are setting up Great British Energy not only to accelerate the transition to renewable and net zero forms of energy, but to bring down bills, because we recognise that energy costs have risen in recent years. Great British Energy will certainly help us to bring those costs down in due course. We all know that hospitality businesses are important. As MPs we recognise that they matter to our constituents, and as individuals we know that they matter to us, our friends and our families. Our high streets are going through a period of transition, from traditional shopping centres to a mix of retail, hospitality and leisure. I assure the House that we recognise the role of hospitality in creating places that people will want to visit, and study, work, live and invest in. As the Minister responsible for hospitality, I will continue to represent the interests of that vital sector, not only in my Department but across Government. Question put and agreed to.

• 3 Dec 2024 · Draft Companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (Protection and Disclosure of Information and Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2024 · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the hon. Lady, who rightly said that additional resources have been given to Companies House that will help it apply not just this statutory instrument but others to help the implementation of the 2023 Act. We have carefully discussed, both across Government and with Companies House, the issue of whether there is a risk of not being able to track fraudulent individuals involved in a company. We believe that the right balance has been struck, although, of course, we will always keep these things under review. On working with overseas territories, the hon. Lady will understand from her own experience that Government discuss legislation across Departments before it is brought forward, including with colleagues at the Foreign Office, to check that the implications of particular measures are being considered at all levels of the Government. We believe that when the package of measures under the 2023 Act are implemented in full, that will allow us to continue to crack down on economic crime while ensuring genuine privacy for individuals who rightly need it. I again commend the regulations to the Committee. Question put and agreed to.

• 3 Dec 2024 · Draft Companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (Protection and Disclosure of Information and Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2024 · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That the Committee has considered the draft Companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (Protection and Disclosure of Information and Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2024. It is a particular joy, Mr Efford, to serve under your chairmanship in a statutory instrument debate—for the first time, I think. The regulations, which are part of a programme to implement the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, were laid before the House on 31 October. The Government are committed to tackling economic crime and enhancing the UK’s standing as a place where legitimate business thrives. The reforms in the 2023 Act support that by reforming the way in which Companies House operates. There has already been much progress. In March, stricter rules and checks were introduced; that is already helping Companies House to cleanse the register of fraudulent filings. Companies House’s organisational transformation is also in full swing, with the expansion of its intelligence functions and relationship building with law enforcement agencies. Significant advances have, then, already been made, but much remains to be done to make all the reforms a reality. This SI is part of the next phase of reform. It is a key principle that individuals running companies and other entities should register their details so that they are contactable and can be held to account for the entity’s affairs. However, disclosure of personal information on the public register can lead to a risk of fraud and identity theft or put individuals at risk for other reasons, such as in cases of domestic abuse. Currently, in certain cases, an individual can apply for protection of their residential address by the registrar; that prevents it from being made publicly available. However, the current legislation does not allow protection when a residential address was formerly used as a company’s registered office address. Companies House regularly receives requests for such protection, including from survivors of domestic abuse, police officers, judges and even Members of this House. These regulations will deliver the first of several reforms to enhance the protection of personal information. The regulations allow applications to protect a residential address when it was previously used as a company’s registered office address. The statutory instrument also caters for the scenario in which a residential address was used as a dissolved company’s registered office address at the point of the company’s dissolution. In such cases, an application may only be made six months after the company’s dissolution. That is to balance privacy concerns against the interests of third parties who might need to restore the dissolved company to the register in order to pursue a claim against it; examples include creditors and personal injury claimants. Those applying to court to restore a dissolved company to the register need the company’s registered office address as part of the court process. If the registered office address of a dissolved company has been protected, this instrument will also allow the registrar to disclose that address. To do so, the registrar must be satisfied that the address is needed to make an application to restore the company to the register. Lastly, this instrument also amends legislation that applies company law to limited liability partnerships, to ensure that the framework for limited liability partnerships keeps in step with that for companies. I commend the regulations to the Committee.

• 13 Nov 2024 · Export and Investment Guarantees · Hansard source

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  I welcome the opportunity to close the debate. I thank the hon. Members for West Worcestershire (Dame Harriett Baldwin) and for Wokingham (Clive Jones) for their comments and questions, which I will try to answer before I make some final remarks about the statutory instruments. The hon. Member for West Worcestershire asked if the UK Government support fair and free trade. I reconfirm our absolute commitment to supporting fair and free trade. We have made it very clear that trade is one of the key planks of the work of the Department. My right hon. Friend the Minister for Trade Policy and Economic Security, reporting to the Secretary of State, is leading work on a trade White Paper, which we will bring forward in due course. I am sure the hon. Lady will see the Government’s commitment to fair and free trade reflected in that document. As the hon. Lady knows, when we were in opposition, we supported accession to the comprehensive and progressive agreement for trans-Pacific partnership. We are working to agree a number of free trade deals, for example with Switzerland, India and South Korea. She asked me about the trade envoys programme. We are sympathetic to such a programme continuing. We are looking at it closely, as she would expect, and we will bring forward an update to the House in due course. The hon. Lady asked me about our views on trade with the United States. We recognise that the US is already a key export market for many British firms, and we want to look at all opportunities to increase trade with the US. I will come back to legislative reform more generally, but she is right to underline the message that we have to be on the side of wealth creators in this country if we want to see growth, more jobs and better pay for those in our communities. Winning export orders is fundamental to delivering growth, so a substantial amount of time in the Department is being spent thinking through what else we can do to support British businesses to win export orders overseas. UK Export Finance is one part, but not the only part, of that story, and we will bring forward our plans in due course.

• 13 Nov 2024 · Export and Investment Guarantees · Hansard source

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  These orders are technical in nature and relate to the capacity of UK Export Finance—which is the operating name of the Export Credits Guarantee Department, the UK’s export credit agency—to support current and prospective exporters. As hon. and right hon. Members will know, UK Export Finance has a mandate to support UK exporters with finance and insurance, helping them to compete internationally. UK Export Finance, or UKEF for short, was established more than 100 years ago and is the world’s oldest export credit agency. Its support has proved crucial to British exporters throughout its existence. UKEF helps exporters to win international contracts, to fulfil export orders, to create jobs and to get paid. Last year it provided £8.8 billion in finance to support UK exporters, and supported up to 41,000 jobs around the UK as a result. Some 88% of the businesses it supported last year were small and medium-sized enterprises. UKEF provides its finance at no net cost to the taxpayer; in fact, it generates a return for the Exchequer, with £705 million returned to the Treasury over the last three years. The Export and Investment Guarantees Act 1991, as amended in 2015, confers powers on the Secretary of State to provide finance that is conducive to exports, and to provide insurance in connection with overseas investments. Those powers are exercised and performed through UKEF. Subject to some limited exceptions, section 6(1) of the Act imposes a limit on the aggregate amount of financial commitments that can be made under those powers—in other words, the total size of UKEF’s financial portfolio. At present, the limit stands at 67.7 billion, expressed in special drawing rights. Special drawing rights are an accounting unit for international transactions and were created by the International Monetary Fund; their value is based on a grouping of five major currencies, including pound sterling, the US dollar and the euro. The sum equates to approximately £70 billion at today’s exchange rates. Why are we seeking an increase? Well, the current limit has been in place since 2015, and UK Export Finance’s portfolio size is now drawing close to it. Were UKEF to reach its limit, it would have to pause its vital financing activity, which, in turn, would cut off its support to prospective exporters. I should note that, in practice, the size of UKEF’s portfolio is subject to a limit set by the Treasury. This limit, called the maximum commitment limit, must be lower than the statutory limit set out in legislation. I am therefore proposing these statutory instruments to increase the commitment limit in section 6(1), and to avoid the future risk of having to turn away applications for UKEF support. Section 6 of the Act enables the Secretary of State, by order, to further increase the limit by up to 5 billion SDR. The power to make such an order may be exercised on up to three occasions and has not been used before. I am therefore seeking approval of these three orders together, which would allow us to increase UKEF’s statutory commitment limit by 5 billion SDR per order, for a total of 15 billion SDR. Inflation since the limit was last amended and the increasing transaction sizes that the Department is supporting mean that the Department is now approaching that legal limit. Laying these SIs together is about future-proofing UKEF and giving it sufficient legal capacity to provide certainty for its customers. Again, it is a decision for Treasury Ministers to then confirm the actual commitment limit under which the Department operates. After they have come into force, the three instruments taken together will increase the commitment limit to 82.7 billion special drawing rights, which converts to around £84 billion pounds at today’s exchange rates. UK Export Finance is delivering an ambitious five-year business plan that aligns with this Government’s missions, supporting growth and prosperity for UK exporters and their communities across the country, and doing so at no net cost to the taxpayer, but its ability to do so will be at risk without the additional legal headroom that these instruments provide. These changes will therefore allow UK Export Finance to continue meeting its mandate in supporting exports and driving growth—something that I am sure those in all parts of the House will join me in welcoming. I commend these orders to the House.