Question reference: S6W-26584
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 28 March 2024
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Current status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 24 April 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-22036 by Neil Gray on 19 October 2023, what action it has taken in relation to its commitment to improve its collection and reporting of data on how women are supported by Scotland’s business support systems and how its actions are closing the gender gap and widening participation in entrepreneurship.
Answer
The Business Support Partnership (BSP) is a commitment from Scottish Government, Scotland’s Enterprise and Skills Agencies, Business Gateway, and Local Government to develop a streamlined, efficient, and effective business support system that drives collaboration at a local, regional, and national level. Partners are committed to including the voice of businesses and communities and delivering inclusive and fair support that is underpinned by shared research, aligned customer surveying and data.
In its Strategic Delivery Plan 2023-2026, the BSP sets out its goal to ensure that the business support system in Scotland is inclusive, accessible and responsive, and that it recognises underrepresented groups, targets priority areas and supports socio-economic growth in response to data and the views of customers.
This is a long term undertaking, but one that is central to closing the gap in entrepreneurial participation. Better collection and reporting of data will provide us with essential information, which will allow us to prioritise and target support to under-represented and under-supported groups and to measure our progress.
Alongside this work we continue to develop our response to the broader recommendations of the Pathways report with emphasis on the establishment of Pre-Start support, with the Pathways Pre-Start Fund awarding £1.3m in partner led programmes aimed at widening entrepreneurial participation in 2023-24.