Latest news with #DepartmentForBusinessAndTrade
The Independent
19 hours ago
- Business
- The Independent
There is one statistic that should worry Reeves and Starmer the most
If there is one statistic that should ring alarm bells in government it is this: that the number of foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in the UK has fallen to the lowest level since records began 18 years ago. It isn't the Tories or a Tory-backed think tank saying this but the government's own people, the Department for Business and Trade. There were 1,375 FDI projects secured by the UK to the end of March, down 12 per cent from the previous year and the lowest since the data began to be compiled in 2007-08. Why does this matter? Because investment from overseas brings with it jobs and prosperity. It's a declaration of faith that Britain is a good place in which to do business and by choosing to come here, foreign businesses are preferring this country over others. Britain needs that international money, it cannot rely on homegrown capital to drive wealth. But increasingly, it's not coming. Investors, it seems, do not like what they see and would rather go elsewhere. The phenomenon is not new – the peak, of 2,265 ventures, was in 2016-17 – but it gives the lie to Sir Keir Starmer 's much vaunted growth agenda. We're told that the prime minister and his chancellor, Rachel Reeves, are going further and faster to kickstart the economy. A year into their rule, a period that more or less coincides with the official DBT update on FDI, foreigners are telling us something very different. There is of course, more than one way to skin a cat, and a DBT spokesperson duly insists: 'This government knows the power of inward investment and is laser-focused on targeting the highest-impact job-creating wins across the UK, which is why the value of our FDI projects has gone up over the past year as we seek quality over volume.' Note the 'laser-focused', which sounds impressive but is meaningless. It's insulting and, by the way, wouldn't previous administrations also declare they were similarly 'laser-focused'? Then again, it's a bit like 'further and faster', a description to be repeated ad nauseam but which does not amount to anything. Note, too, the shift from quantity to quality. These were figures devoted to quantity, as they have been for almost two decades. But now, they are rendered redundant. Would they have said the same if the total had risen? What do you think? The point about concentrating on the size of a deal rather than its existence is that value is hard to quantify. It depends on how companies formulate their accounts, exchange rate movements and other factors. Crucially as well, that size tally can be skewed by just one deal, one mega-merger between multinationals that may even result in substantial UK job losses. Another, accompanying, piece of data is that the government estimates that jobs created via FDI were down 3 per cent in the year to end of March 2025. It was said to be an estimate but the number was precise, at 69,355, which is the lowest since 2020-21, when Britain, and the world, was in the grip of Covid-19. It is true that Britain is not alone. Other large nations, especially those in Europe and including the US, suffered falls in their inward investment. The recent EY attractiveness survey put the blame on 'weak economic growth, geopolitical turbulence and ongoing high energy prices'. That may be so, but how to explain then the fact that FDI in the UAE increased by 49 per cent last year? This was in the World Investment Report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Being the UN, however, the popularity of the rich UAE was a cause for regret. 'Too many economies are being left behind… because the system still sends capital where it's easiest, not where it's needed,' said UNCTAD's secretary-general. Yes, capitalism is unfair. Unlike many nations, though, Britain is in a position to make life easier for investors. What is the government doing? Only increasing employers' national insurance contributions and adding to the regulatory burden, and therefore the cost, with its new workers' charter. Not much sign of 'further and faster' there. Comparing the UK's performance with others and saying they were down as well, is rather like those organisations that when they suffer a disaster fall back on the reality that most of the time everything operates fine. No, it's this calamity that counts and its consequences, that is all that people are concerned with. It's a convenient get-out tactic that encourages acceptance and complacency rather than action. But they are laser-focused so that's alright then. What is concerning is where those falls in FDI projects occurred, in IT and financial services, in life sciences, biotech and pharmaceuticals, just the sectors the government is keen to promote as epitomising Britain's modern economy. There is a trend underway that, if reports are to be believed, has seen Reeves react. This is outflow of individuals' wealth from Britain. Some non-doms, the wealthy foreigners able to take advantage of lower tax rules, have chosen to depart. Meanwhile, others are not coming. Why? Because in her Budget, the chancellor said she was planning to make them subject to UK inheritance tax on their worldwide assets, including those held in trusts – a proposal she is now said to be reconsidering. Whether it's enough remains to be seen. Hers is a regime that has targeted the wealthy in other areas. That she decided to strike at the non-doms may be seen as indicative of a wider policy. Reeves made her move at exactly the same moment as other nations were doing their level best to woo the fleet-of-foot global rich, offering an array of inducements and benefits. They were doing so because while these folks pay lower taxes they contribute to the public purse through other means, by spending and investing – like FDI in other words. Perish the thought the two are related, that foreigners per se no longer wish to invest in Britain. That laser focus, it seems, has yet to reach them.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Post Office payout progress insufficient, MPs say
The government has taken "insufficient action" to ensure people entitled to compensation as a result of the Post Office scandal have applied for it, a report has found. The Public Accounts Committee of MPs, which has scrutinised payouts, noted that many of the wrongly-accused or convicted sub-postmasters were yet to receive "fair and timely" redress. The committee revealed the government had no current plans to follow up with people eligible for compensation, after just one in five letters sent to sub-postmasters about compensation received a response. The Department for Business and Trade said it had paid out more £1bn in compensation to date. There are four main schemes that sub-postmasters can apply to for compensation, and individual eligibility depends on the circumstances of each case. Between 1999 and 2015, more than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted after the faulty Horizon IT system made it look like money was missing from branch accounts. Some sub-postmasters ended up going to prison, while many more were financially ruined and lost their livelihoods. Some died while waiting for justice. The scandal has been described as the biggest miscarriage of justice in British legal history, but many victims are still waiting for financial redress, despite government pledges to speed up payouts. What are the different Post Office compensation schemes? 'The Post Office has ruined every happy moment of my life since 2005' The Department for Business and Trade said the PAC report was based on a "period before last year's election". However, the committee said that while the report did scrutinise the annual accounts for the Department for Business and Trade from April 2023 to March 2024, while the Conservatives were in power, the report also reflected the record of the current government. The report includes evidence heard in April this year and reflected some figures as recent as May. The committee said: By March this year, the Post Office, which is owned by the government, had written to 18,500 people, regarding applications for the Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS), but the majority had not responded. The Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS), which offers 800 eligible people a choice between applying for a £600,000 flat-rate settlement or the option to pursue a "full claim assessment", had received 536 applications by May this year. Of those, 339 had chosen the flat payout sum. The report said the government had yet to receive any full claim assessment applications In relation to the Overturned Convictions Scheme, 25 eligible individuals out of 111 people had not yet submitted a claim. Some 86 had submitted full and final claims, of which 69 had been paid. The PAC report said the government had "no plans for following up with people who are, or may be, eligible to claim under the schemes but who have not yet applied". It added the government did not yet have clarity on the value of claims expected through the HSS and HCRS schemes. Latest figures showed a total of £1.039bn has been awarded to just over 7,300 sub-postmasters across all the redress schemes. Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chair of the committee, said it was "deeply dissatisfactory" to find that the compensation schemes were still moving "far too slowly, with no government plans to track down the majority of potential claimants who may not yet be aware of their proper entitlements". "It is entirely unacceptable that those affected by this scandal, some of whom have had to go through the courts to clear their names, are being forced to relitigate their cases," he added. The committee has made several recommendations to the government with the broad message that every postmaster be made fully aware of the options for claiming compensation. The Department for Business said: "We will consider the recommendations and work with the Post Office, who have already written to over 24,000 postmasters, to ensure that everyone who may be eligible for redress is given the opportunity to apply for it." Chris Head, who ran a Post Office in West Boldon, South Tyneside, was wrongly accused of stealing £88,000 and when the criminal investigation against him was dropped, the Post Office later launched a civil case. He said the current compensation processes were not working. "You have Sir Alan Bates, offered less than 50% of his claim… you have other people on the Overturned Convictions Scheme, who are the worst affected people... not been fully compensated. "How can you tell people to come forward, to make a claim when the worst people affected are not being paid?" The long-running public inquiry into the Post Office scandal, which has examined the treatment of thousands of sub-postmasters and sought to establish who was to blame for the wrongful prosecutions, will publish its final report on 8 July. As part of its annual report, which was compiled in April this year, but covers the period from April 2023 to March 2024, the PAC also found that the government's efforts to recover fraud losses incurred through the Bounce Back Loan Scheme introduced to help businesses recover from Covid-induced losses had been "largely unsuccessful". It said it was estimated at least £1.9bn had been lost to fraud through the scheme, with just £130m in payouts from lenders recovered, though it is unconfirmed how much of the amount related to fraud. The report said the government had been "too passive by placing primary responsibility on lenders to recover losses". "As lenders' losses are 100% underwritten by government, there is no commercial incentive to assist with recovery of taxpayers' money," it added.
BBC News
4 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Post Office scandal: Insufficient action on compensation, say MPs
The government has taken "insufficient action" to ensure people entitled to compensation as a result of the Post Office scandal have applied for it, a report has Public Accounts Committee of MPs, which has scrutinised payouts, noted that many of the wrongly-accused or convicted sub-postmasters were yet to receive "fair and timely" committee revealed the government had no current plans to follow up with people eligible for compensation, after just one in five letters sent to sub-postmasters about compensation received a Department for Business and Trade said it had paid out more £1bn in compensation to date. There are four main schemes that sub-postmasters can apply to for compensation, and individual eligibility depends on the circumstances of each 1999 and 2015, more than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted after the faulty Horizon IT system made it look like money was missing from branch sub-postmasters ended up going to prison, while many more were financially ruined and lost their livelihoods. Some died while waiting for scandal has been described as the biggest miscarriage of justice in British legal history, but many victims are still waiting for financial redress, despite government pledges to speed up payouts. The Department for Business and Trade said the PAC report was based on a "period before last year's election".However, the committee said that while the report did scrutinise the annual accounts for the Department for Business and Trade from April 2023 to March 2024, while the Conservatives were in power, the report also reflected the record of the current report includes evidence heard in April this year and reflected some figures as recent as committee said:By March this year, the Post Office, which is owned by the government, had written to 18,500 people, regarding applications for the Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS), but the majority had not responded. The Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS), which offers 800 eligible people a choice between applying for a £600,000 flat-rate settlement or the option to pursue a "full claim assessment", had received 536 applications by May this year. Of those, 339 had chosen the flat payout sum. The report said the government had yet to receive any full claim assessment applicationsIn relation to the Overturned Convictions Scheme, 25 eligible individuals out of 111 people had not yet submitted a claim. Some 86 had submitted full and final claims, of which 69 had been PAC report said the government had "no plans for following up with people who are, or may be, eligible to claim under the schemes but who have not yet applied".It added the government did not yet have clarity on the value of claims expected through the HSS and HCRS figures showed a total of £1.039bn has been awarded to just over 7,300 sub-postmasters across all the redress Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chair of the committee, said it was "deeply dissatisfactory" to find that the compensation schemes were still moving "far too slowly, with no government plans to track down the majority of potential claimants who may not yet be aware of their proper entitlements"."It is entirely unacceptable that those affected by this scandal, some of whom have had to go through the courts to clear their names, are being forced to relitigate their cases," he committee has made several recommendations to the government with the broad message that every postmaster be made fully aware of the options for claiming Department for Business said: "We will consider the recommendations and work with the Post Office, who have already written to over 24,000 postmasters, to ensure that everyone who may be eligible for redress is given the opportunity to apply for it." Chris Head, who ran a Post Office in West Boldon, South Tyneside, was wrongly accused of stealing £88,000 and when the criminal investigation against him was dropped, the Post Office later launched a civil said the current compensation processes were not working."You have Sir Alan Bates, offered less than 50% of his claim… you have other people on the Overturned Convictions Scheme, who are the worst affected people... not been fully compensated. "How can you tell people to come forward, to make a claim when the worst people affected are not being paid?"The long-running public inquiry into the Post Office scandal, which has examined the treatment of thousands of sub-postmasters and sought to establish who was to blame for the wrongful prosecutions, will publish its final report on 8 July. 'No incentive' to recover fraudulent Covid loans As part of its annual report, which was compiled in April this year, but covers the period from April 2023 to March 2024, the PAC also found that the government's efforts to recover fraud losses incurred through the Bounce Back Loan Scheme introduced to help businesses recover from Covid-induced losses had been "largely unsuccessful".It said it was estimated at least £1.9bn had been lost to fraud through the scheme, with just £130m in payouts from lenders recovered, though it is unconfirmed how much of the amount related to report said the government had been "too passive by placing primary responsibility on lenders to recover losses"."As lenders' losses are 100% underwritten by government, there is no commercial incentive to assist with recovery of taxpayers' money," it added.
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
The Covid fraud squad that turned out to be a joke
To visit the website of the National Investigation Service (Natis) was to be met with a string of scalps. Images of uniformed officers carrying out 'raids' and 'seizures' abounded – success stories, it said, from recouping cash unduly claimed during the Government's £47 billion Covid Bounce Back loan scheme (BBLS). Yet, despite the stab-proof vests and its domain name, Natis was not in fact a police body, but a department made up mostly of council staff run out of the scandal-hit Thurrock council in Essex. In five years of pandemic loan recovery efforts, the department has secured just 14 convictions, yet cost the taxpayer £38.5 million. Last month, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) announced that the unit was being scrapped, and that remaining 'viable' cases were being handed over to the central government-run Insolvency Service. This move 'will ensure lost funds from Covid-era fraud are recovered more quickly and effectively', according to Gareth Thomas, the business and trade minister. But just last week, the situation got worse. It has been mooted that due to poorly managed administration and insufficient training, most Natis investigators had not been granted state-recognised investigative powers. The upshot of this revelation is that many hundreds of Natis cases – some finished and some still in the system – are ripe for a legal challenge. It's the latest in a long list of setbacks in Natis's short and colourful history, which began in the chaotic first months of the Covid pandemic when the Bounce Back loan scheme took shape. Easy-to-access cash In April 2020, small and medium-sized business owners were offered the chance to secure loans of up to £50,000. The idea was to stave off pandemic-induced decline, and provide a lifeline for otherwise flagging firms; funds typically hit applicants' accounts in a matter of hours. The Government guaranteed the loans (meaning taxpayers would pick up the bill for those who defaulted, or for businesses that shuttered), with no fees or interest to pay for the first 12 months. This easy-to-access cash inevitably caught the eye of opportunists. Loans were applied for in others' names; individuals over-egged their turnover in order to boost borrowing power, while others used the free-flowing cash to plug personal payments. A Times investigation showed that this taxpayer-funded loot had been splashed on cars and watches, gambling sprees and home improvements. Suitcases of money doled out by the scheme were seized by airport border officials, according to a Home Office source. One gambler received £50,000 which was spent on poker games after claiming his company turnover was four times that amount – despite having £2.72 in his bank account; the owner of a sandwich shop secured £35,000 for his business, before using the funds to fix up his garden. A restaurateur, who had been evicted from the premises for not paying rent, also received Bounce Back loan cash. The Government provided around £78 billion of support to businesses, households and public services from 2021 to 2022. According to the National Audit Office, fraud rose from £5.5 billion in the two years pre-Covid to £21 billion in the two years after, some £7.3 billion of which pertained to temporary pandemic schemes. So what had been intended as an economy-boosting safety net soon became a public embarrassment. In 2022, ministers railed against the 'unacceptable' failure to recover funds wrongfully taken in the scheme; Lord Agnew, then minister for counter fraud, resigned at the despatch box over these dire results, lambasting the 'Dad's Army Operation' responsible for returning taxpayers' money. And so it fell to Natis, which had been at the helm since summer 2020, to prove otherwise. Natis had originally been set up in 2014 under a different name, the Counter Fraud and Investigation Directorate, to investigate Essex-based fraud. And it's worth mentioning that while in situ, members of the team failed to spot what was happening beneath their noses at Thurrock Council, where a £1.3 billion debt had been racked up between 2016 and 2020 via a 'borrow to invest' solar energy scandal. But in 2020, with the DBT (then the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) without the in-house capacity to carry out investigations itself during the chaotic first months of the pandemic, it was deemed that Natis staff were the nation's brightest sparks in fraud detection. But even back then, there were those who vehemently opposed this characterisation. Investigating Natis With 74 staff across the UK, 'Natis blurred lines between civil and criminal authority and the quiet complicity of police forces and government departments', says JJ Jackson, a reporter at East Anglia Bylines who has been investigating the unit for several years. 'The avalanche started well before Covid.' There were reports of staff 'walking into crime scenes and using police interview rooms with no supervision'; the application for (and use of) a domain name – which was also emblazoned on the back of their stab-proof vests – and being set up as a for-profit enterprise, ' which is odd because they're a local authority and you can't make a profit', says Jackson. Mike Craig, who runs the website Mr Bounce Back, a BBLS news service, first got wind of Natis a few years ago. 'They were kicking in doors and arresting people. It was all very dramatic,' he recalls, 'and they all had police [style-logo] emblazoned uniforms, so I was under the impression they were police. But then I got chatting to people, and it became apparent they weren't police at all.' He then received a call from a barrister recounting a 'bizarre' exchange. Natis had written to his client on the basis of a suspected BBLS fraud, despite the individual being 'completely innocent'. The barrister went to the unit's offices at Thurrock Council, and 'ended up speaking with the highest ranking person in Natis because he was the only one available. He said, 'I literally wiped the floor with him, and they dropped all charges'.' The barrister 'just left the office smirking'. Despite the hard-as-nails images it had sought to share online – it regularly pumped out stories of doors being kicked in from London to Manchester, with the BBC tagging along to film a 2021 raid – Natis employed staff described by another source as 'either ex-policemen who were overweight and could never be a policeman again, or council employees. They have a cushy life.' Craig says has been told repeatedly by those who have dealt with them first-hand that 'they're a bunch of amateurs' who in fact 'had as much power as a dustbin man'. The oversight committee tasked with keeping them in check at Thurrock Council, he adds, was akin to 'a knitting circle of old ladies'. (A review commissioned by Thurrock Council found that the unit had not been sufficiently overseen either by ministers, or the council itself.) Concerns were raised too over their apparent pursuit of the innocent. A helpline and email address urging people to get in touch if they suspected abuse of the BBLS meant anyone could be 'grassed up' with little proof; Craig has heard from a number of those wrongly accused. It has left him wondering: 'Did they have a quota to get more money? Did they have to say, 'Well, we've done 200 investigations this quarter'? When you look at the figures, it doesn't add up. They've spent more on [the unit] than has ever got recovered.' Jackson too says that there were BBLS applicants who 'actually didn't steal anything, never made a profit, never intended to make a loss; they were still pursued and got 18 months in prison'. Of their treatment by a council-run entity, he says: 'You don't expect that sort of chicanery.' At one stage, the unit claimed that it had brought in £23 million of recovered money, yet a review by the Government's internal audit agency deduced that 'the overall amount recovered by Natis remains unclear'. A DBT press release issued in mid-May added that its investigation had 'revealed problems with Natis governance and how recoveries are reported'. According to a Natis statement provided to The Telegraph, the dozen convictions it did secure pertain to £2.25 million fraudulently taken, while 'currently there are a number of complex high-value fraud investigations ongoing… fraud investigations can be time-consuming and resource intensive'. It also cited the courts backlog, currently at a record high in England and Wales, as potentially delaying proceedings further. 'Of the Natis cases that have concluded following prosecution,' it said, 'Natis has achieved a 100 per cent conviction rate.' The takeover by the Insolvency Service builds on BBLS investigations it has been carrying out since 2021, which have thus far resulted in disqualifications against 2,167 directors, bankruptcy restrictions against 343 individuals, and 62 criminal convictions amounting to £6 million in compensation. There is, however, a long way to go and last week's disclosure that many of the Natis cases may be legally unsound is a nothing short of body blow to the whole loan-recovery process. The hole the BBLS has blown in the public purse appears to have been created by three fundamental issues: a system too easy to fiddle, a local unit being tasked with fighting a colossal battle, and scant oversight. The effects of the scheme roll on, both publicly and for private enterprises. Starling Bank, which issued BBLs during the pandemic, last month announced a 25 per cent dip in profits amounting to £28 million in losses as a result of improper checks on applicants. Should the scheme have been started in the first place? 'The premise of Covid BBLs was not bad for the UK,' says Miles Hacking, the restructuring and insolvency director at Freeths, a law firm. 'What was bad however is that the application process was ripe for abuse and given that the scheme was guaranteed by the Government, the irrecoverable amounts loaned have simply increased public debt.' It was too easily manipulated, Hacking adds, 'and the hundreds of director disqualifications connected to the abuse of the BBL scheme supports this'. Jackson says that as well as the significant financial bruising enabled by the lax scheme, Natis 'should never have been let in the front door'. His 'ultimate fear', he says, is that 'no one's done any safeguarding checks' on the unit presiding over this major abuse of public cash – and that taxpayers will be coughing up for their ineptitude for years to come. 'This isn't a police force,' he says of Natis, which is still being paid on a rolling monthly basis while cases are transferred. 'This is a kindergarten for people who wanted to play being [fictional detective chief inspector] Gene Hunt.'
Entrepreneur
5 days ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
UK Celebrates Export Champions
Twelve UK SMEs have been announced as winners of the 2025 Made in the UK, Sold to the World Awards by the Department for Business and Trade. You're reading Entrepreneur United Kingdom, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. Twelve outstanding UK-based small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been named winners of the Department for Business and Trade's (DBT) 2025 Made in the UK, Sold to the World Awards. Now in its third year, the awards recognise the international success of Britain's most dynamic small businesses. This year's winners showcase the UK's growing leadership in sustainability and artificial intelligence, two sectors experiencing rapid global demand. The winning companies span diverse industries, from Osbit's offshore wind infrastructure solutions to Twin Science's gamified climate action kits and Ubloquity's AI-driven trade platform. Together, they highlight the strength of UK innovation in exporting cutting-edge technologies and sustainable solutions to global markets. Gareth Thomas, Minister for Services, Small Businesses and Exports, said: "The innovation and entrepreneurship shown by the businesses entering the Made in the UK, Sold to the World Awards demonstrate the best of British business. When small businesses export, the whole economy benefits. By celebrating the outstanding international trade achievements of UK SMEs, we hope to encourage more businesses to get on the exporting ladder and take the best of Britain to markets around the world. " This year's winners were selected from hundreds of entries across 12 sector-focused categories, including two new areas - Digital & Technology and Export Services - introduced to reflect shifting global market trends. Each category named one winner, alongside up to three highly commended businesses. Notable winners include Porotech in Digital & Technology, known for its AR and AI-powered wearables generating 90% of revenue from exports and partnerships with Amazon, Microsoft, and Foxconn. Twin Science & Robotics, awarded in Education & EdTech, exports to over 40 countries and has achieved 70% annual revenue growth with its STEM kits focusing on AI, robotics, and climate literacy. Sustainability also featured prominently, with Osbit winning in Low Carbon Energy for its offshore wind technology and Avon Specialty Metals recognised in Advanced Manufacturing & Construction after boosting international sales by 192% in three years through advanced metal recycling.
