Corporate report

BIS single departmental plan: 2015 to 2020

Published 19 February 2016

This corporate report was withdrawn on 14 December 2017

This has been replaced by another version.

£16.6bn Total Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) in financial year 2015 to 2016

This includes £12.9 billion resource DEL and £3.8 billion capital DEL, as set out in the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015 (totals may not sum due to rounding). In addition, BIS Annually Managed Expenditure (AME) in 2015/2016 is £11.1 billion.

Source: Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015; Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2015

Vision

Our overarching aim is to make Britain the best place in the world to start and grow a business. The most important thing any government can do to support business is help to create and safeguard the economic conditions that will allow them to thrive and our long-term economic plan is doing precisely that. Working with all types of business across the country enables BIS to support growth both regionally, through our network of BIS local offices, and internationally, through UK Trade and Investment.

We draw on the best available evidence to develop policy solutions that help industry, protect consumers, and encourage innovation – both in products and skills. We engage with the world, explore new markets, and help businesses plan for the long-term and invest in their future. We are playing our part in moving towards a higher wage, lower tax society, building a more productive Britain. And as a one nation government, we are making sure this is done in a way that benefits the many, not the few.

Through our network of partner organisations we deliver services to thousands of businesses, students and customers every day – including, funding science and research, paying student loans, registering new businesses, and protecting intellectual property.

Our ministers and management

Objectives

1. Business and enterprise

Lead ministers: Rt Hon Anna Soubry MP, Minister for Small Business and Enterprise and Baroness Neville-Rolfe, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and Minister for Intellectual Property

Lead officials: Sam Beckett, Director General, Economics and Markets; Rachel Sandby-Thomas Director General, Skills, Deregulation and Local Growth, and Legal; Gareth Davies Director General, Knowledge and Innovation; and Keith Morgan, British Business Bank

1.1 What BIS is doing

BIS will cement the UK’s position as the best place in Europe to start and grow a business by supporting local growth, entrepreneurs, and making it easier for businesses to resolve disputes quickly and easily.

We will:

• help new challenger banks to inject new competition into the market, including through the British Business Bank
• roll out the Help to Grow scheme, which will help firms looking to expand, invest and take on new employees
• treble the Start Up Loans programme during the next Parliament so that 75,000 entrepreneurs get the chance to borrow money to set up their own business, including an ambition that 20,000 people from BAME backgrounds take out a Start Up Loan
• boost growth and jobs, making it easier for people to start-up businesses
• establish a new Small Business Commissioner to help resolve disputes, especially over late payment
• strengthen the Prompt Payment Code and ensure all major government suppliers sign up
• champion our new Groceries Code Adjudicator, so farmers receive a fair deal from supermarkets
• push for all countries to sign up to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative
• lead international efforts to ensure global companies pay their fair share in tax, including full transparency over who really owns companies
• devolve far-reaching powers over economic development, transport and social care to large cities
• build a Northern Powerhouse
• devolve further powers over skills spending and planning to the Mayor of London
• back the Midlands strength in advanced manufacturing, engineering and science with major projects such as the Energy Research Accelerator and support the innovation in the motor industry
• deliver more bespoke Growth Deals with local councils
• back Local Enterprise Partnerships to promote jobs and growth
• support the creation of new jobs by backing the East’s strengths in agri-tech, high tech businesses around Cambridge, and energy businesses at Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft
• back elected metro mayors
• legislate to deliver devolved powers and budgets to Greater Manchester, leading to the creation of a directly elected Mayor
• support Business Improvement Districts and other forms of business-led collaboration on high streets
• secure the future of 3,000 rural post offices and support the Post Office through the ongoing transformation programme
• explore options to move the Green Investment Bank into the private sector
• pursue the sale of its one-third stake in Urenco
• complete the sale of the pre-2012 income contingent repayment student loan book
• develop options to bring private capital into the Ordnance Survey before 2020
• consult on options to move operations of the Land Registry to the private sector from 2017
• deliver an independent review into self-employment (Julie Deane Review)
• deliver an Enterprise Bill to cement the UK’s position as one of the best places in Europe to start and grow a business

1.2 How BIS is doing

Small business employers who expect to increase turnover in the next 12 months

51%

Small business employers who expect to increase employment in the next 12 months

32%

BIS aims to improve key indicators on ‘business growth’ and ‘ambition’.

Source: Small Business Survey 2014

Number of Start Up Loans awarded to small businesses

34,388 start up loans awarded by November 2015

BIS aims to award 75,000 Start Up Loans to small businesses by May 2020 (administered by the British Business Bank).

Number of devolution deals

7

BIS and Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) aim to increase the number and value of devolution deals over the course of the Parliament in line with commitments in the government’s productivity plan, Fixing the foundations.

Number of established Enterprise Zones

24

BIS and DCLG aim to increase the number of new Enterprise Zones to 44 by 2020.

Number of small businesses

5.3 million

BIS aims for the UK to be the best place in the world to start and grow a business. There were a record 5.3 million small businesses at the start of 2015.

Source: Business Population Estimates 2015

2. Competitiveness and exports

Lead ministers: Rt Hon Lord Maude, Minister of State for Trade and Investment; Rt Hon Anna Soubry MP, Minister for Small Business, Industry and Enterprise; Nick Boles MP, Minister of State for Skills; Baroness Neville-Rolfe, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and Minister for Intellectual Property; and George Freeman MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Life Sciences

Lead officials: Catherine Raines, UKTI; Philippa Lloyd, Director General, People, Strategy and Higher Education; Rachel Sandby-Thomas, Director General, Skills, Deregulation and Local Growth, and Legal; Gareth Davies Director General, Knowledge and Innovation; and Sam Beckett, Director General, Economics and Markets

2.1 What BIS is doing

BIS is developing a long-term industrial approach, through supporting competitive markets, cutting red tape, protecting intellectual property, generating new trade, investment and job opportunities, and opening up the EU single market.

We will:

• push for freer global trade, concluding major deals with US and Japan progressing an India trade deal, reinvigorating the World Trade Organisation and championing an EU-China trade deal
• make it easier for people to trade freely with each other as the route out of poverty is about much more than aid
• deliver a rigorous and efficient export licensing service
• introduce clear new principles for consumer switching
• devolve Sunday trading in local areas
• review Trading Standards
• consult on a new strategic steer for the Competition and Markets Authority
• be No.1 in Europe and top 5 worldwide in the World Bank ‘Doing Business’ rankings by 2020
• use the Challenger Business Programme to identify and address barriers to expansion for early stage disruptive businesses
• launch an Emerging Industry Action Group for the sharing economy
• work with departments and regulators to cut £10 billion of red tape over the next Parliament
• pilot the use of primary authority principles in local public procurement
• ensure statutory guidance on the growth duty is clear regulators should help businesses first
• expand the single market, breaking down the remaining barriers to trade and ensuring that new sectors are opened up to British firms
• further reform of EU Structural Funds
• contribute to the UK renegotiation and the in/out referendum by the end of 2017
• deliver a successful UK presidency of the EU
• support a modern industrial approach, working with sector councils to address the productivity challenges facing the UK economy, and help retain the UK’s competitive position within the global economy
• work with the Automotive Council in support of our resurgent car industry
• boost support for first-time exporters and back the GREAT campaign, so we achieve the goal of having 100,000 more UK companies exporting by 2020 than in 2010
• lead Europe in attracting foreign investment
• double our support for the British firms selling goods to China
• support British food around the world and open up new export markets

2.2 How BIS is doing

Number of additional British companies exporting in 2014 compared to 2010

33,200

The government aims to have 100,000 more British companies exporting in 2020 than in 2010. 221,300 businesses overall are exporting. UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) is the central driver of a whole of government approach.

Source: Annual Business Survey

‘World Bank Ease of Doing Business’ rankings 2015

6th

BIS is aiming for the UK to be No. 1 in Europe and top 5 globally in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business rankings.

Net regulatory cost to business from May 2015 (first data release in summer 2016)

The government aims to save businesses £10 billion over 5 years thanks to reductions in regulation over the course of this Parliament, which BIS and the Cabinet Office are coordinating.

3. Science and innovation

Lead ministers: Jo Johnson MP, Minister of State for Universities and Science; Baroness Neville-Rolfe, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and Minister for Intellectual Property; and George Freeman MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Life Sciences

Lead official: Gareth Davies, Director General, Knowledge and Innovation

3.1 What BIS is doing

BIS is ensuring that the UK is the best place in Europe to innovate, maintaining our world-leading research and science base to drive growth and productivity while reforming the system to maximise value from our investments. BIS is ensuring the UK remains a world leader in science and research by investing £6.9 billion in capital funding and by protecting today’s £4.7 billion resource funding in real terms.

We will:

• seek to ensure that the UK continues to support world-leading science and invests public money in the best possible way
• protect the £4.7 billion annual science resource budget in real terms to the end of the decade
• invest £6.9 billion in science capital up to 2021 – record investment in the UK’s research infrastructure
• provide an independent review of the UK Research Councils (Nurse Review)
• prioritise funding for dementia research
• implement the National Space Policy, supporting jobs and growth in the UK’s space sector
• back scientific and technical strengths by creating new institutions such as The Royce Institute for Advanced Materials in Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and Sheffield; National Centre for Ageing, Science and Innovation in Newcastle; The Cognitive Computing Centre in Daresbury; the Energy Security & Innovation Observing System for the Subsurface (ESIOS) – making investments in energy research in Blackpool, Cumbria and Thornton; New Polar Research Ship; Square Kilometre Array – Jodrell Bank (Manchester); and the Alan Turing Institute - London
• make Britain the best place in Europe to innovate and patent new ideas
• create more Catapult Centres, helping to commercialise research and support innovative businesses
• continue to support our network of University Enterprise Zones, ensuring that Britain’s world-beating universities are able to make money from the technology they develop
• provide free, comprehensive maps of all open-access green space
• IP to be protected by continuing to require internet service providers to block sites that carry large amounts of illegal content, including their proxies; progress to be made under our voluntary anti-piracy projects to warn internet users when they are breaching copyright
• continue work to ensure that search engines do not link to the worst-offending sites
• support a long-term economic plan by fostering research, innovation and jobs in the life science industry
• increase the use of cost-effective new medicines and technologies, and encourage large-scale trials of innovative technologies and health services
• support the ‘8 great technologies’

3.2 How BIS is doing

UK’s position against comparator countries on top quality published research

1st

BIS aims to maintain a leading position compared to other comparator countries (Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US).

Source: International Comparative Performance of the UK Research Base

UK business spend on research and development (R&D) in 2014

£19.9bn

BIS aims to increase business expenditure on R&D to help drive improvements in productivity.

Source: Office for National Statistics

Turnover of life sciences in the UK during 2014

£58bn

BIS and the Department for Health, through the Office of Life Sciences, aim to increase life science turnover by £20 billion by 2020, equivalent to a one-third increase.

Source: Bioscience and Health Technology Database: Annual Report 2014

Employment of life sciences in the UK during 2014

195,000

BIS and the Department for Health, through the Office of Life Sciences, aim to increase health and life science jobs by 15% by 2020 to over approximately 220,000.

Source: Bioscience and Health Technology Database: Annual Report 2014

4. Apprenticeships and skills

Lead minister: Nick Boles MP, Minister of State for Skills

Lead officials: Rachel Sandby-Thomas, Director General, Skills, Deregulation and Local Growth

4.1 What BIS is doing

BIS is leading the delivery of 3 million new apprenticeship starts to ensure businesses have access to the skilled workforce they need and as part of our wider ambition to extend opportunity to everyone. A joint national programme of area reviews is being undertaken by BIS and the DfE, to facilitate the restructuring of the post-16 education and training institutions.

We will:

• support delivery of 3 million apprenticeship starts by 2020
• introduce a levy on large UK employers to increase the number of apprenticeship starts
• establish a new institute for apprenticeships
• increase the proportion of apprenticeship take-up by BAME communities by 20% by 2020
• step up efforts to recruit more apprentices into the tourism industry
• treble the number of apprenticeships in food, farming and agri-tech
• roll out many more degree apprenticeships
• continue to improve further education through the network of National Colleges and institutes of technology, which will provide specialist higher-level vocational training in sectors critical to economic growth
• publish more earnings and destination data for further education courses, and require more accreditation of courses by employers
• continue to replace lower-level, classroom-based further education courses with quality apprenticeships that combine training with experience of work and a wage
• expand traineeships programme
• introduce a simplified and localised funding system for adult education
• restructure the further education provider base

4.2 How BIS is doing

Number of new apprenticeship starts since May 2015

268,400

BIS aims to create 3 million new apprenticeship starts by 2020, working with the Department for Education (DfE).

Source: BIS statistical first release

Proportion of apprenticeships started by people with a BAME background in the last Parliament

10.0%

This represents 236,700 starts. BIS aims to increase the proportion of apprenticeships started by people with a BAME background by 20% to 11.9% of total starts in 2019 to 2020 (percentages rounded).

Source: Office for National Statistics

Number of new National Colleges opened

BIS aims to open 5 new National Colleges by September 2017.

5. Higher education

Lead minister: Jo Johnson MP, Minister of State for Universities and Science

Lead officials: Philippa Lloyd, Director General, People, Strategy and Higher Education

5.1 What BIS is doing

BIS is strengthening English higher education, ensuring the system remains financially sustainable, allows new entrants to the market and is open to people from all backgrounds. Through the Teaching Excellence Framework, we’ll help ensure students benefit from high quality teaching.

We will:

• double the proportion of people from disadvantaged backgrounds entering university in 2020 than at the start of the decade
• open the higher education market to new entrants
• ensure the continuing success and stability of reforms to university funding, meaning you don’t pay anything towards tuition while studying and only start paying it back when you earn over £21,000 per year
• introduce a national postgraduate loan system for taught masters
• introduce a framework to recognise universities offering the highest teaching quality and maintain our universities’ reputation for world-class excellence
• from September, abolish the cap on higher education student numbers and remove an arbitrary ceiling on ambition
• encourage universities to offer more 2-year courses
• require more data to be openly available to potential students so they can make decisions informed by the career paths of past students
• encourage the development of online education as a tool for students, studying either independently or within a university
• clamp down on the number of so-called ‘satellite campuses’ opened in London, by universities located elsewhere in the UK
• take further measures to ensure colleges and universities prevent extremism or intimidation and protect free speech
• with UCAS, consult with the sector on the feasibility of introducing name blind applications to higher education
• put in place policies to meet the PM’s ambition of increasing BAME participation at universities by 20% by 2020

5.2 How BIS is doing

Entry rate of disadvantaged young people from the lowest participation neighbourhoods in 2015

18.5%

This figure is up from 13.6% in 2009. BIS aims to double the proportion of people from disadvantaged backgrounds entering higher education by the end of this Parliament, from 2009 levels.

Source: UCAS end of cycle report 2015

Number of UK domiciled ethnic minority full-time undergraduate students in UK higher education institutions (HEIs) in 2014 to 2015

268,300

BIS aims to increase the number of BAME students going to university by 20% by 2020, from the 2014 to 2015 figures.

Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA)

6. Labour markets

Lead minister: Nick Boles MP, Minister of State for Skills

Lead official: Sam Beckett, Director General, Economics and Markets

6.1 What BIS is doing

BIS is helping Britain move to a higher wage, lower tax, lower welfare society, introducing a new National Living Wage to provide added security for working people. BIS is tackling illegal practices in the workplace, legislating to reform and modernise trade union law, and dealing with abuse of the minimum wage.

We will:

• take further steps to eradicate the abuse of workers, such as non-payment of the minimum wage, exclusivity in zero-hour contracts and exploitation of migrant workers
• clamp down on illegal immigration and abuse of the minimum wage
• introduce tougher labour market regulation to tackle illegal working and exploitation
• encourage businesses to pay the living wage whenever they can afford it
• incentivise tougher action on employers who do not pay the minimum wage, by allowing inspection teams to reinvest more of the money raised by fines levied on employers
• make volunteering for 3 days a year a workplace entitlement for people working in large companies and the public sector
• achieve full employment with the highest employment rate in the G7; contribute to abolishing youth unemployment
• from April 2016, introduce a new National Living Wage (NLW) of £7.20 an hour for the over 25s, with an ambition for the NLW to reach £9 an hour by 2020
• ensure strikes should only be the result of a clear, positive decision based on a ballot in which at least half the workforce has voted
• tackle the intimidation of non-striking workers
• ensure trade unions use a transparent opt-in process for those members who wish to contribute to the relevant union’s political fund
• tackle the disproportionate impact of strikes in important public services by introducing a tougher threshold in health, education, fire and transport, border security and nuclear decommissioning where the support of at least 40% will be required
• ensure strikes cannot be called on the basis of ballots conducted years before
• reform the role of the Certification Officer
• tighten the rules around taxpayer-funded paid ‘facility time’ for union representatives
• repeal restrictions banning employers from hiring agency staff to provide essential cover during strikes
• devolve employment tribunals to Scotland, in line with the agreement set out in the Smith Commission

6.2 How BIS is doing

National Living Wage as a proportion of median earnings at April 2016 (forecast value, subject to revision)

55%

The government’s ambition is that the National Living Wage (NLW) should continue to increase to reach 60% of median earnings by 2020, subject to sustained economic growth and on the basis of recommendations from the Low Pay Commission, as outlined in the government’s productivity plan.

Delivering efficiently in BIS

What BIS is doing

In order to identify how to contribute to the government’s deficit reduction targets, BIS has been reviewing its business model. By 2020, the department wants to simplify its structure, become more digital, be cheaper for taxpayers and better for users. After extensive analysis, the department decided in Autumn 2015 to focus on 3 goals:

• reduce operating expenditure by 30 to 40%, equivalent to a saving of £350m, including reductions in headcount
• reduce locations from more than 80 to 7 or 8 centres plus a regional footprint
• reduce its 45 partner bodies by more than half

To achieve these ambitions objectives we will need a BIS that is digitally enabled and increasingly effective – while staying true to our values.

How BIS is working collaboratively across government

We will work collaboratively with Cabinet Office, HM Treasury and other government departments to deliver transformational change in key areas, including:

• developing digital solutions that meet common standards set by Government Digital Service and utilise cross-government platforms such as GOV.UK Verify, GOV.UK Pay or GOV.UK Notify as part of departmental digital services wherever this demonstrates the best value money solution for government
• rationalising our estate in a joined‐up way, looking to develop ‘government hubs’ with other government departments, releasing land for housing where possible and participating in the development of the new commercial property model
• delivering savings in our commercial relationship including through spend on common goods and services, delivered in partnership with Crown Commercial Services
• continuing to build our commercial capability and working with Crown Commercial Services to deliver the government’s 33% commitment of our spend with small to medium sized-enterprises (SME) by 2020
• working in partnership with: the Cabinet Office to deliver arm’s length body (ALB) transformation plans; Infrastructure and Projects Authority on major projects programmes and prioritisation; and reducing losses through fraud and error alongside developing a debt management strategy