MPs on the Commons’ international trade committee have accused the government’s export credit agency of exaggerating the number of UK businesses it supported in the last year.
UK Export Finance (UKEF) directly helped a “significantly lower” number of companies than its “headline figure of 549 business supported” in the 2020-21 financial year, the committee found.
In the agency’s annual 2020-2021 annual report, UKEF CEO Louis Taylor said the agency had “a record year in support of our exporters, providing £12.3bn in finance and insurance and directly supporting 549 UK businesses–doubling the number from 2018–19.”
However, the select committee highlighted that of those 549, only 167 directly applied for finance and insurance, while the remaining 382 companies received secondary support, such as a referral to a private sector provider.
MPs in the committee recommended that UKEF stop counting companies that had received this indirect support, to avoid its work being “misinterpreted.”
As well as these reporting discrepancies, the committee also flagged how UKEF’s support risked jeopardising the government’s plans to be net zero by 2030, as a significant amount of UKEF’s support had gone to companies “with high greenhouse gas emissions”.
Although it only supported one fossil fuel extraction project last year, the agency had given “considerably more support to oil and gas projects than renewables in the past”, which poses a problem for the agency as it decides which projects to support in future.
“It’s clear that UKEF is at a critical juncture and changes will be required if it is to continue to meet exporters’ needs,” said committee chair Angus Brendan MacNeil.
“UKEF should put serious thought into how it will increase support for renewables projects, or else its actions will continue to risk actively contradicting the Government’s ambitions,” he…
