Baroness Neville-Rolfe corrected a written answer on New Businesses: Students

16 March 2016 · Lords written answer · Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated, Life peer) asked written question HL6704 on 3 March 2016. Baroness Neville-Rolfe answered on 11 March 2016 for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and Baroness Neville-Rolfe corrected the answer on 16 March 2016. The correction replaced 5 figures (35,000, £109.1m, £200 million, £4.8m, £500m) with 2 figures (1,100, 4,600). Altogether 263 words differ between the two versions.

The question

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have plans to encourage universities to support students who have started, or plan to start, a business venture while at university.

Original and corrected answer

Struck through: original only. Bold: correction only.

Original	Corrected
~~Government’s Start-Up Loans scheme~~ supports ~~people wanting~~ to start a business and ~~has provided over 35,000 loans worth over £200 million. We’re committed~~ to ~~supporting start-ups by cutting taxes~~ on ~~small businesses, extending rate relief~~ and ~~increasing~~ the ~~Employment Allowance.~~ In ~~Cambridge, Government has invested £4.8m in the establishment of the Sir John Bradfield Technology Centre to support business incubation on Cambridge Science Park. This is in~~ addition to ~~a range~~ of ~~other growth-enabling investments made through~~ the ~~£500m Greater Cambridge City Deal, the £109.1m Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Growth Deal and a three year funding package to support development of a local business Growth Hub~~	Government fully supports and actively encourages students who wish to start a business. This commitment was reiterated in the recent grant letter from Ministers to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) where we welcomed the Council’s commitment to: The continued funding and support for the work of National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB), which we see as key to promoting enhanced university and business activity. NCUB gathers evidence and brings together university and business leaders, sharing best practice. The NCUB’s work covers all aspects of the interaction between Businesses and Higher Education, including addressing skills shortages, work experience and graduate recruitment. To continue to promote knowledge exchange through the Higher Education Innovation Fund, which is focussed on promoting entrepreneurship and enterprise education, as well as the commercialisation of research. In addition to this, the QAA issued guidance to Higher Education Institutions in 2012 to promote best practice in developing enterprise and entrepreneurship education. According to HESA, support provided by universities led to 4,600 graduate start-ups in 2013-14[1] an increase of 1,100 on the previous year. [1] HE-BCI (Higher Education – Business Community Interaction) survey

Original

Corrected

~~Government’s Start-Up Loans scheme~~ supports ~~people wanting~~ to start a business and ~~has provided over 35,000 loans worth over £200 million. We’re committed~~ to ~~supporting start-ups by cutting taxes~~ on ~~small businesses, extending rate relief~~ and ~~increasing~~ the ~~Employment Allowance.~~
In ~~Cambridge, Government has invested £4.8m in the establishment of the Sir John Bradfield Technology Centre to support business incubation on Cambridge Science Park. This is in~~ addition to ~~a range~~ of ~~other growth-enabling investments made through~~ the ~~£500m Greater Cambridge City Deal, the £109.1m Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Growth Deal and a three year funding package to support development of a local business Growth Hub~~

Government fully supports and actively encourages students who wish to start a business. This commitment was reiterated in the recent grant letter from Ministers to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) where we welcomed the Council’s commitment to:
The continued funding and support for the work of National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB), which we see as key to promoting enhanced university and business activity. NCUB gathers evidence and brings together university and business leaders, sharing best practice. The NCUB’s work covers all aspects of the interaction between Businesses and Higher Education, including addressing skills shortages, work experience and graduate recruitment.
To continue to promote knowledge exchange through the Higher Education Innovation Fund, which is focussed on promoting entrepreneurship and enterprise education, as well as the commercialisation of research.
In addition to this, the QAA issued guidance to Higher Education Institutions in 2012 to promote best practice in developing enterprise and entrepreneurship education.
According to HESA, support provided by universities led to 4,600 graduate start-ups in 2013-14[1] an increase of 1,100 on the previous year.
[1] HE-BCI (Higher Education – Business Community Interaction) survey

The question and answer on the Parliament website.

Receipt

Read from	https://questions-statements-api.parliament.uk/api/writtenquestions/questions/457378?expandMember=true
Date read	15 October 2026
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