Performance report

Question 1

Performance overview

Accepted Answer

Purpose of the performance overview

The performance overview provides a short summary of the annual report and accounts.

Report of the permanent secretary

Once again, this year proved to be a busy and eventful one. Beyond its focus on boosting enterprise, delivering net zero and supporting innovation, the department continued with efforts to protect UK consumers and businesses from the effects of the war in Ukraine on the global energy system. As set out in more detail throughout this report, the work has been vast in scale and scope.

The department provided unprecedented support to consumers and businesses to help them through the cost-of-living crisis through a suite of schemes that made energy bills more affordable, while contributing to wider economic objectives including helping to hold down inflation.

The ‘British Energy Security Strategy’, published in April 2022, reinforced commitment to domestic energy security and independence. This was followed with the publication of ‘Powering Up Britain’ in March 2023, which set out how the government will enhance our country’s energy security, seize the economic opportunities of the transition, and deliver on our net zero commitments.

BEIS delivered on big energy projects, including £700 million of government funding confirmed for Sizewell C and the creation of Great British Nuclear to support the UK’s nuclear industry by providing better opportunities to build and invest.

BEIS took some significant pieces of legislation through parliament to support economic growth both in the near and long-term, including the Economic Crime (Transparency & Enforcement) Act and Minimum Service Levels Bill, as well as publishing a draft Digital Markets, Competition & Consumers Bill.

In November we announced up to £484 million of research funding to support the R&D sector and also extended the Horizon Europe Guarantee scheme to protect funding for UK researchers, businesses, and innovators while we finalised the UK’s future relationship with the EU Programme.

In February, the Prime Minister announced that the department would cease to exist in its current form, and the work of BEIS would be taken forward in 3 new departments. A new department for Energy Security and Net Zero; a dedicated Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and a combined Department for Business and Trade will ensure teams have the skills and focus they need to deliver for the British people.

I am extremely proud of everything BEIS achieved in what turned out to be its final year. I know that progress in all these areas will continue to accelerate as BEIS’ work is carried forward by 3 brand new departments.

Sarah Munby
Permanent Secretary and Principal Accounting Officer

Our purpose and priorities in 2022 to 2023

Purpose

Our collective mission was ‘leading Britain’s recovery’, which underpinned all our work.

Priorities

Our priorities during the year were as follows:

Enterprise: Backing long-term growth
Net Zero: Tackling climate change
Innovation: Unleashing a science superpower

Closure of BEIS and the new departments

On 7 February 2023, the Prime Minister announced the creation of 4 new departments, with BEIS’ policy responsibilities being split between these 3 key departments:

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) will focus on giving the UK cheaper, cleaner, more secure sources of energy – cutting bills, cutting emissions, and cutting our dependence on international energy supplies, like those of Putin’s Russia.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) will make sure the UK is the country where the next great scientific discoveries are made – and where the brightest minds and the most ambitious entrepreneurs will turn those ideas into companies, products and services that can change the world.
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) will be a single, coherent voice for business inside government, focused on growing the economy with better regulation, new trade deals abroad, and a renewed culture of enterprise at home.

Our business model and environment

For our departmental priorities, we:

devise and manage policies – build expertise in a subject area, advise ministers about it, develop their policies
deliver public services – implement the policies ministers have decided on
manage corporate services – manage taxpayer funds

The core department carries out policy development. The department also sponsors public bodies which contribute to the work of the department. These partner organisations are listed in the section ‘our group’.

We consult with a range of people and organisations, including small and large businesses, business representative organisations, unions, and research institutions. We also consult the public on critical policy decisions.

Our priorities are constantly shaped by issues in the social and economic environment and government priorities, to serve the public effectively.

Organisational structure

The diagram below shows the groups that made up our organisational structure. The groups are headed by directors general (DGs). Within these DG groups, there are typically several directorates, and within them, several teams.

Organisational structure: diagram data

Energy Supply Taskforce
Energy Markets & Supply
Energy Infrastructure
Net Zero Buildings & Industry
Net Zero, Nuclear & International
Business Sectors
Science, Innovation & Growth
Market Frameworks
Trade & Opportunities
Corporate Services
Chief Scientific Adviser

Our group

Executive agencies

They act as an arm of the Core Department. They undertake executive functions, rather than policy advice.

Companies House
Insolvency Service
Intellectual Property Office^{[Note 1]}
Met Office^{[Note 1]}
UK Space Agency

Consolidated departmental group

These bodies are within our accounting boundary. They include non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) and other central government bodies not yet classified as NDPBs. The Department sponsors NDPBs and usually sets their strategic framework. They are a separate legal entity and operate at arm’s length from ministers. However, a minister will be accountable to Parliament for them.

The full list of consolidated entities is in note 29. Those excluded below are separate legal entities, but their accountability flows from the entities below.

NDBPs

Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service
British Hallmarking Council^{[Note 3]}
Central Arbitration Committee
Civil Nuclear Police Authority
Coal Authority
Committee on Climate Change^{[Note 3]}
Committee on Fuel Poverty
Committee on Radioactive Waste Management
Competition Appeal Tribunal
Competition Service
Copyright Tribunal
Low Pay Commission
Nuclear Decommissioning Authority
Oil and Gas Authority (trading name now North Sea Transition Authority from 21 Mar 2022)
Regulatory Policy Committee
Salix Finance Limited
Small Business Commissioner^{[Note 3]}
UK Atomic Energy Authority
UK Research and Innovation

Other central government bodies

British Business Bank
British Technology Investments
Certification Officer
Electricity Settlements Company
Financial Reporting Council
Groceries Code Adjudicator^{[Note 3]}
Low Carbon Contracts Company
Pubs Code Adjudicator ^{[Note 3]}
UK Shared Business Services

Wider departmental group

They work to achieve BEIS objectives but are not consolidated into group accounts. They include public corporations, non-ministerial departments, and central government funds.

Bulb Energy Limited^{[Note 2]}
Celsa Steel (UK) Limited^{[Note 2]}
Competition and Markets Authority^{[Note 4]}
Land Registry^{[Note 4]}
National Nuclear Laboratory^{[Note 2]}
National Physical Laboratory^{[Note 2]}
Nuclear Liabilities Fund^{[Note 5]}
Office of Gas and Electricity Markets^{[Note 4]}
Ordnance Survey^{[Note 2]}
Post Office Limited^{[Note 2]}

Notes

Not consolidated into the departmental group accounts:

Trading funds
Public corporations
Minor bodies, on the grounds of materiality.
Non-ministerial departments
Central government funds

SR21 metrics

Help businesses to bounce back from the impacts of COVID-19 and support renewed investment in the economy

Stock of finance and number of SMEs supported by BBB programmes (excluding Covid loans)
Stock of finance and number of SMEs supported by Recovery Loan Scheme
Average estimated Covid impact on investment in the 1 year ahead (Bank of England)
Average estimated Covid impact on employment in the 1 year ahead (Bank of England)

Reduce UK greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, while supporting green jobs and mobilising investment to deliver a green industrial revolution across the UK

Total UK greenhouse emissions (tonnes of CO2 equivalent) (for tracking progress against carbon budgets)
UK greenhouse gas emissions by sector (tonnes of CO2 equivalent)
Total projected greenhouse gas savings from BEIS policies included in the Energy and Emissions Projections (EEP)
Low carbon share of electricity generation (percentage)
Total low carbon and renewable energy economy (LCREE) jobs (ONS)
Progress towards the target of installing at least 600,000 heat pumps per year by 2028
Progress to Net Zero and energy efficiency (sectoral indicators)
Policy gap to carbon budgets

Unleash innovation and accelerate science and technology throughout the country, through increased private and public investment, to increase productivity and UK global influence

Gross expenditure research and development as % of GDP
Business enterprise research and development as % of GDP
Percentage of businesses that are innovation active, including by region
Number of spinouts
Count of published international patent families from UK applicants
Field weighted citation impact
Percentage of businesses introducing new goods/services already available in the market (New to firm)
Share of World top 2500 R&D companies
Average estimated Covid impact on sales in the 1 year ahead (Bank of England)

Boost enterprise by making the UK the best place in the world to start, grow and invest in a business

Business investment as percentage of GDP
Business birth rate, including by region (%)
Output per worker growth
Output per hour growth
Rate of employment scale ups (from ONS data)
Percentage of SMEs that are happy to use external finance to help business grow
Percentage of SMEs giving an 8-10 impact score for access to finance as an obstacle to running their business as they would like in the next 12 months
Number and value of seed, venture, and growth stage deals for calendar year
Business survival rates at the 2-year interval and UA level

Performance summary on priority outcomes

See performance on priority outcomes in the performance analysis section for more details on performance, including metrics.

Help businesses to bounce back from the impacts of COVID-19 and support renewed investment in the economy

We published a Hospitality Strategy Refresh. We helped to bring the energy costs faced by UK businesses more in line with other major economies. We continued to invest in sectors of the future.

Boost enterprise by making the UK the best place in the world to start, grow and invest in a business

We extended the start-up loan schemes to more businesses. We also extended the Help to Grow: Management scheme to more businesses.

Reduce UK greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, while supporting green jobs and mobilising investment to deliver a green industrial revolution across the UK

We published the Net Zero Growth Plan. It sets out how we will enhance the UK’s energy security, seize the economic opportunities of the transition, and deliver on our net zero commitments. Alongside this, we published an Energy Security Plan – it sets out how we will ensure the UK is more energy independent, secure, and resilient.

Unleash innovation and accelerate science and technology throughout the country, through increased private and public investment, to increase productivity and UK global influence

Over the past year, we have continued our work to drive up public investment in R&D to record levels. This included finalising allocations for BEIS’s largest ever R&D budget of £39.8 billion from 2022 to 2025, ensuring we support areas of relative UK strength and increase the level of private R&D.

Major progress has been made in several areas. This includes the delivery of the Innovation Strategy, the launch of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), a new independent research body custom-built to fund high-risk, high-reward scientific research, and the announcement of the International Science Partnerships Fund.

Since November 2021, we have been supporting UK researchers and businesses via the Horizon Europe guarantee. The guarantee, which is administered by UKRI, issued over £1 billion grant offers by 4 April 2023 and has ensured there has been no loss in funding for the UK sector during the 2 years of delay. In parallel, while negotiations were stalled, we continued to develop Pioneer, our bold, ambitious alternative to Horizon, and in April 2023 we published detailed proposals on these plans.

Principal risks

The key risks faced by the department in 2022-23 are summarised below. For further details on our risks, see risk profile in the performance analysis.

Net zero: risk of failure to secure buy-in from consumers, businesses, and international partners to start delivering on our net zero ambitions and meet carbon budgets.

Energy market: risk that energy support schemes would be inadequate to manage rising energy prices and the inflationary pressures affecting consumers and businesses.

People: risk that workforce capacity and capability (including specialist resource) will not be effectively prioritised which can impact the workforce’s wellbeing.

EU transition: risk of failing to implement responsibilities within the Trade Cooperation Agreement (TCA), Rest of the World trade agreements and balancing with post-transition relations with the EU.

Where we spent our money

Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) is the controllable budget issued by HM Treasury on behalf of Parliament to deliver our strategic objectives. It excludes Annually Managed Expenditure (AME) which represents volatile, demand-led spend and technical accounting matters. These categories are explained in the financial review section of the annual report and accounts.

In 2022-23, total DEL spend for the departmental group is shown in the diagram below. Major areas of spend are also shown by estimate line for the core department, and by entity for agencies and partner organisations.

View a larger version of this diagram

Where we spent our money in 2022-23: diagram data

Group	Major areas of spend	Value (£m)
Core department	Delivering affordable energy	£12,989m
Partner organisation	UKRI	£9,383m
Partner organisation	NDA	£2,699m
Core department	Ensuring our energy is reliable	£1,716m
Partner organisation	Sizewell C	£841m
Executive agency	UKSA	£640m
Core department	Capability	£577m
Partner organisation	BBB	£380m
Core department	Science and research	£346m
Core department	Deliver an ambitious industrial strategy	£344m
Partner organisation	UKAEA	£297m
Core department	Taking action on climate change	£283m
Core department	Maximise investment opportunities	£249m
Core department	Managing our energy legacy	£209m
Core department	Government as a shareholder	£128m
Core department	Promote competitive markets	£125m
Partner organisation	Diamond Light Source	£124m
Executive agency	Insolvency	£89m
Partner organisation	Acas	£59m
Partner organisation	Coal Authority	£58m
Partner organisation	UKSBS	£18m
Partner organisation	Salix	£12m
Executive agency	Companies House	£11m
Other ALBs		-£119m
Total		£31,458m

Question 2

Performance analysis

Accepted Answer

Structure of the performance analysis

The performance analysis provides a detailed narrative of our performance and includes the following sections:

performance on priority outcomes
risks affecting delivery of our priorities
financial review
sustainability report
performance in other areas

Performance on priority outcomes

This section shows how the department has performed against its priority outcomes agreed at the latest SR, covering 2021-25. It also reports on the metrics agreed at the latest SR.

It also provides a summary of how our performance has contributed to the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs). The SDGs are a package of 17 goals for 2016-2030. The UK government is delivering SDGs via HMG’s existing performance frameworks. BEIS contributes mainly to SDGs 7, 9 and 13.

Help businesses to bounce back from the impacts of COVID-19 and support renewed investment in the economy

We published a Hospitality Strategy Refresh (March 2023) to update our work to help the hospitality industry bounce back from the pandemic. We addressed the impacts of new economic challenges such as rising energy costs, staffing challenges and inflation.

We helped to the bring energy costs faced by UK businesses more in line with other major economies. We provided a discount on wholesale gas and electricity prices via our Energy Bill Relief Scheme (September 2022 to March 2023). We proposed measures (British Industry Supercharger, February 2023) to further support Energy Intensive Industries particularly exposed to high electricity costs, which was consulted on over spring 2023.

We continued to invest and leverage industry investment in future sectors to boost growth. We invested in electric vehicle supply chains, including gigafactories. We invested in aerospace technology to increase UK market share. We invested in life sciences manufacturing, in particular human medicines, and medical diagnostics. We extended the British Patient Capital programme, which launched in 2018, to 2033-34. The programme increases investment in R&D-intensive industries.

We worked to shape the Investment Zones policy, for levelling up. We also worked with businesses to utilise the investment zones offer. We helped to identify geographical clusters in growing sectors.

We continued to use our business networks to encourage economic growth. This includes our Sector Councils, collaboration with Growth Hubs and regular engagement with the UK’s biggest business representative organisations.

Contributions to SDGs

N/a

Metrics

1. Stock of finance and number of SMEs supported by BBB programmes (excluding Covid loans)

	Stock of finance	Number of SMEs
To end of Sep 2022	£12.2bn	91,000

Source: Not yet published
Release: n/a

Commentary:
— n/a

2. Stock of finance and number of SMEs supported by Recovery Loan Scheme

	Stock of finance	Number of SMEs
As at Mar 2023	£4.3bn across all phases	around 20,000 businesses

Source: British Business Bank
Release: n/a

Commentary:
— n/a

3. Average estimated Covid impact on investment in the 1 year ahead (Bank of England)

4. Average estimated Covid impact on employment in the 1 year ahead (Bank of England)

5. Average estimated Covid impact on sales in the 1 year ahead (Bank of England)

These questions were removed from the Bank of England survey in April 2022. With the Covid-19 no longer classified as a pandemic and restrictions ending, the Bank of England has stopped asking businesses how the disease was affecting their trade.

Boost enterprise by making the UK the best place in the world to start, grow and invest in a business

UK business finance and support

On 26 September 2022, the British Business Bank announced that the Start Up Loans programme has been expanded. The programme previously provided finance to start ups that had been trading for up to 2 years. The programme now includes startups that have been trading for up to 3 years and second start up loans are now available to eligible businesses that have been trading for up to 5 years. As at April 2023, the Start Up Loans programme had delivered more than 103,000 loans, providing more than £981 million of funding.

In July 2022, we announced the extension of the Recovery Loan Scheme, covering the period from 1 August 2022 to 30 June 2024. The scheme is facilitated by the government-owned British Business Bank and delivered through its delivery partners. Under the extension, lenders will offer facilities of up to £2 million to support businesses that would otherwise be unable to access the finance they need or would only be able to do so at a higher rate of interest.

In June 2022, we announced that even more entrepreneurs would benefit from the Help to Grow: Management scheme. The scheme helps small and medium sized businesses learn new skills, reach new customers, and boost profits. Businesses with 10 or more employees became eligible to have up to 2 participants join. Previous participants on the Small Business Leadership Programme also became eligible.

In December 2022, for the last time, businesses were able to access the Help to Grow: Digital scheme. We announced its closure due to lower-than-expected take-up. The scheme allowed SMEs access to digital technology to help them grow their business.

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act was passed into law on 15 March 2023. It introduced new identity verification requirements and gave powers for Companies House to challenge dubious information. It gives stronger powers for law enforcement to seize, freeze and recover crypto assets quickly and easily. This was the biggest upgrade of rules around the creation of a UK company in 170 years.

We announced the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill. It aims to reform competition and consumer policy to drive growth and productivity in competitive, fair, free markets.

On 5 December we committed to plans for millions of employees to receive the right to request flexible working on day one. The measures would empower workers to have a greater say over when, where, and how they work, and businesses would benefit from higher productivity and staff retention as a result.

Contribution to SDGs

Goal 8: Promote sustained inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all:

We brought forward the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill.
We committed to new plans for millions of employees to receive the right to request flexible working on day one.

Metrics

1. Business investment as percentage of GDP

Quarter	Business investment as percentage of GDP
2022 Q4 (Oct–Dec)	9.4%
2022 Q3 (Jul-Sep)	9.6%
2022 Q2 (Apr-Jun)	9.6%
2022 Q1 (Jan-Mar)	9.4%
2021 Q4 (Oct–Dec)	8.8%
2021 Q3 (Jul-Sep)	9.3%
2021 Q2 (Apr-Jun)	9.0%
2021 Q1 (Jan-Mar)	8.9%
2020 Q4 (Oct–Dec)	9.4%
2020 Q3 (Jul-Sep)	9.3%
2020 Q2 (Apr-Jun)	9.4%
2020 Q1 (Jan-Mar)	10.1%

Source: ONS, GDP, Gross Fixed Capital Formation
Release: Quarterly

Commentary:
Business investment has been a metric of concern for the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), due to the UK being an underperformer compared to other G7 economies. This has been a long-standing challenge for the UK, which has been exacerbated in the past few years due to the Global Financial Crisis GFC, Brexit and COVID-19.

2. Business birth rate, including by region (%)

	2021	2020	2019	2018
North East	13.0%	12.0%	12.5%	12.3%
North West	13.4%	12.5%	12.9%	12.9%
Yorkshire and The Humber	12.3%	11.4%	11.9%	11.4%
East Midlands	11.8%	11.8%	12.2%	11.8%
West Midlands	14.2%	11.9%	14.7%	12.8%
East	11.4%	10.5%	11.8%	11.9%
London	14.1%	13.3%	14.8%	14.7%
South East	10.8%	10.6%	11.5%	11.3%
South West	10.9%	10.1%	10.4%	10.0%
Wales	13.2%	11.2%	11.6%	11.8%
Scotland	10.7%	9.5%	11.6%	11.1%
Northern Ireland	10.3%	9.1%	9.8%	9.2%
Total	12.4%	11.5%	12.6%	12.3%

Source: ONS, Business demography, UK: 2021
Release: Annually, 2022 data will be published in November 2023.

Commentary:

In the 2021 release, ONS revised data for all years, to remove businesses that are not registered for VAT or PAYE but do have a live company number.
The business birth rate dipped slightly during 2020 which the Office for National Statistics attributes to the COVID-19 pandemic. Births in 2021 have returned to the previous levels in the UK as a whole but the regional picture is mixed.

3. Output per worker growth

Quarter	Output per worker growth (% change quarter on previous quarter SA: UK)
2022 Q4 (Oct‑Dec)	-0.1
2022 Q3 (Jul‑Sep)	0.1
2022 Q2 (Apr‑Jun)	-0.5
2022 Q1 (Jan‑Mar)	0.3
2021 Q4 (Oct‑Dec)	1.6
2021 Q3 (Jul‑Sep)	0.8
2021 Q2 (Apr‑Jun)	6.1
2021 Q1 (Jan‑Mar)	-1.1
2020 Q4 (Oct‑Dec)	2.0
2020 Q3 (Jul‑Sep)	17.6
2020 Q2 (Apr‑Jun)	-19.9
2020 Q1 (Jan‑Mar)	-2.5
2019 Q4 (Oct‑Dec)	0.6
2019 Q3 (Jul‑Sep)	1.0
2019 Q2 (Apr‑Jun)	-0.3
2019 Q1 (Jan‑Mar)	0.3
2018 Q4 (Oct‑Dec)	-0.2
2018 Q3 (Jul‑Sep)	0.5
2018 Q2 (Apr‑Jun)	0.4
2018 Q1 (Jan‑Mar)	-0.6
2017 Q4 (Oct‑Dec)	0.2
2017 Q3 (Jul‑Sep)	0.6
2017 Q2 (Apr‑Jun)	0.2
2017 Q1 (Jan‑Mar)	0.4

Source: ONS, Output per worker growth
Release: Quarterly

Commentary:

Productivity is the ratio of output (gross value added, GVA) to input (hours worked / employees). Productivity in the economy has been a challenge in the UK, hence our productivity puzzle. Historically, productivity has trended upwards over time – more goods and services have been produced per hour/employee worked. This has allowed living standards to rise. However, productivity growth since the recession in the late 2000s has been relatively weak and economists refer to this as ‘the productivity puzzle’.
To note, 2020 to 2021 should be analysed with caution as lockdown restrictions and furlough impacted the measurement of the statistic.

4. Output per hour growth

Quarter	Output per hour growth (% change quarter on previous quarter SA: UK)
2022 Q4 (Oct‑Dec)	0.4
2022 Q3 (Jul‑Sep)	0.4
2022 Q1 (Jan‑Mar)	-0.8
2021 Q4 (Oct‑Dec)	1.5
2021 Q3 (Jul‑Sep)	-0.9
2021 Q2 (Apr‑Jun)	1.2
2021 Q1 (Jan‑Mar)	0.6
2020 Q4 (Oct‑Dec)	-4.1
2020 Q3 (Jul‑Sep)	8.2
2020 Q2 (Apr‑Jun)	-3.8
2020 Q1 (Jan‑Mar)	-0.8
2019 Q4 (Oct‑Dec)	0.2
2019 Q3 (Jul‑Sep)	0.8
2019 Q2 (Apr‑Jun)	0.1
2019 Q1 (Jan‑Mar)	-0.5
2018 Q4 (Oct‑Dec)	0.4
2018 Q3 (Jul‑Sep)	-0.3
2018 Q2 (Apr‑Jun)	0.3
2018 Q1 (Jan‑Mar)	-0.5
2017 Q4 (Oct‑Dec)	0.3
2017 Q3 (Jul‑Sep)	1.6
2017 Q1 (Jan‑Mar)	0.1

Source: ONS, Output per hour growth
Release: Quarterly

Commentary: See commentary in ‘output per worker growth’ above.

5. Rate of employment scale ups (from ONS data)

Year	Employment scale ups as a percentage of businesses (with 10+ employees)
2022	0 (not released yet)
2021	4.1
2020	4.7
2019	4.9
2018	5.5
2017	5.3

Source: ONS, High Growth Enterprises by district and section, Business Population Estimates
Release: Annually, with a 2-year lag. Figures for 2022 would be due in early 2024.

Commentary: The rate of employment scale-ups has declined in recent years. This is likely to be due to the pandemic.

6. Percentage of SMEs that are happy to use external finance to help business grow

Year	Employment scale ups as a percentage of businesses (with 10+ employees)
2022	31.0
2021	36.0
2020	33.0
2019	29.0
2018	22.0
2017	34.0
2016	43.0
2015	45.0

Source: SME finance monitor
Release: Quarterly

Commentary:

Since 2015, the share of businesses happy to take on external finance to grow the business declined rather steeply to a low of just under 30% in 2019.
After a strong but short-lived rise post-pandemic, levels have fallen close to all-time lows (3 in 10 businesses happy to use external finance to grow).
This sentiment of businesses feeling a need to self-fund may be due to external shocks in recent years (such as the energy cost crisis) making firms more uncertain about the future.
There may also be a lack of trust between firms and lenders, or perceived barriers by firm seeking investment.

7. Percentage of SMEs giving an 8-10 impact score for access to finance as an obstacle to running their business as they would like in the next 12 months

Year	Percentage of SMEs giving an 8-10 impact score for access to finance as an obstacle to running their business as they would like in the next 12 months
2021	8
2020	8
2019	7

Source: SME finance monitor annual report 2021
Release: n/a

Commentary: The most recent figure of 6% is relatively low compared to the trend over the past decade. This suggests access to finance is seen as less of a barrier as it was previously.

8. Number and value of seed, venture, and growth stage deals for calendar year

Number and value of seed, venture, and growth stage deals for calendar year 2022

Year	Seed #	Seed £m	Venture #	Venture £m	Growth #	Growth £m
2022	1.322	2,874	1,483	10,639	608	25,136
2021	1,624	6,901	2,308	27,623	1,293	90,998
2020	1,494	6,879	1,636	12,158	836	31,950
2019	1,324	4,567	1,442	9,097	829	32,807
2018	1,113	2,932	1,160	6,067	685	31,256
2017	1,057	2,084	987	4,650	471	9,893
2016	962	1,345	809	3,219	398	6,033
2015	951	995	940	4,255	550	12,925
2014	918	936	1,053	5,125	784	15,794
2013	663	566	852	3,262	548	7,131
2012	494	467	786	4,350	372	4,943

Source: Beauhurst
Release: n/a

Commentary: 2021 was a record year for equity investment, and since then we have seen returns to pre-pandemic levels in both the number and value of deals. This is to be expected, however, given the unprecedented displays in recent years. It is too early to say whether the state of UK equity is relatively poor.

9. Business survival rates at the 2-year interval and UA level

Region	2-year survival rate (%)
North East	75.1%
North West	74.2%
Yorkshire and The Humber	76.3%
East Midlands	74.6%
West Midlands	70.4%
East	76.6%
London	73.2%
South East	76.0%
South West	77.7%
Wales	74.5%
Scotland	75.9%
Northern Ireland	72.4%

Source: Business Demography, UK: 2021
Release: Annually

Commentary:

The break down at Unitary Authority (UA) level can be found in the link above.
This includes businesses born between 2016 and 2021.
This shows the proportion of businesses still in existence after 2 years. The southwest has the highest 2-year survival rate at 77.7%. The 2-year survival rate has remained constant for firms set up between 2016 and 2019.

Reduce UK greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, while supporting green jobs and mobilising investment to deliver a green industrial revolution across the UK

(This is a cross-cutting outcome – contributing departments are Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Department for Transport (DFT), Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and HM Treasury (HMT)).

Reducing emissions across the economy

We aim to have a hydrogen production capacity of 10 GW by 2030. This year, we confirmed the first winning projects to benefit from the net zero hydrogen funds. We published a shortlist of 20 projects for the first round of the electrolytic hydrogen allocation. We also published a hydrogen investor roadmap in April 2022. And a hydrogen sector development action plan in July 2022.

We accelerated the Contracts for Difference (CFD) scheme by moving to annual auctions. We secured 11 GW of new renewable capacity through allocation round 4 in July 2022, which was the largest auction to date.

We invested in Sizewell C in November 2022. We announced the launch of Great British Nuclear (GBN) in March 2023. GBN will be responsible for driving delivery of new nuclear projects.

We invested in domestic energy efficiency upgrades through our decarbonisation schemes. This is part of approximately £3 billion investment to improve 230,000 to 290,000 homes and save customers £400 to £700 per annum on their energy bills (based on the £2,500 price cap).

We launched a new Energy Efficiency Taskforce in February 2023, to reduce energy demand faster, and drive energy efficiency improvements to reduce bills for households and businesses.

We introduced an uplift to energy efficiency standards for new homes. New homes must now deliver around 30% fewer greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions compared to previous standards. The uplift is a stepping stone to the revised Future Homes Standard, led by DLUHC, which we will consult on in 2023, ahead of legislating in 2024 and full implementation in 2025.

Supporting the transition across the economy

We published the Net Zero Growth Plan on 30 March 2023. It provides an update on our progress towards net zero emissions by 2050. It demonstrates our actions such as investing in offshore wind, carbon capture, usage, and storage (CCUS), and nuclear. It responds to the expert recommendations made in the Independent Review of Net Zero and the 2022 Annual Progress report by the Climate Change Committee (CCC).

We published a carbon budget delivery plan. It sets out a package of policies and proposals to meet carbon budgets. It addresses the requirements of the Court Order (following the Net Zero Strategy Judicial Review) and Section 14 of the Climate Change Act 2008.

From 2022, the UK requires large businesses and financial institutions to disclose their climate-related risks and opportunities. We became the first G20 country to make this requirement. The organisations will report using a set framework.

Government established the green jobs delivery group in May 2022 - the central forum for government and industry on green jobs and skills. Its membership includes ministers from BEIS (now the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero), DEFRA, DFE, and DWP, as well as industry leaders, academia, the skills sector, unions, and local representatives.

We hosted the Green Trade and Investment Expo in November 2022. It brought together 200 British business leaders and global investors. It showcased investment and export opportunities presented by the UK’s net zero transition.

The UK Infrastructure Bank announced 12 deals in March 2023. These invested approximately £1.2 billion and unlocked over £5 billion of private capital.

Contribution to SDGs

Goal 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all:

Contracts for Difference (CFD) allocation round 4
Government investment decision (GID) in Sizewell C
Energy Security Plan.

Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation

Extension to the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IETF)

Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

This theme cuts across all our activities.

Goal 8: Promote sustained inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all

Government established the Green Jobs Delivery Group in May 2022.

Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable

See the Net Zero Growth Plan for a breakdown by sector.

Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

See the Net Zero Growth Plan for a breakdown by sector.

Metrics

1. Total UK greenhouse emissions

Total UK net territorial greenhouse emissions (million tonnes CO2 equivalent, MtCO2e).

	Total (MtCO₂e)	difference from previous year (%)	difference from 1990 (%)
2021‑22	417.1	-2.2	-48.7
2021	426.5	5.0

Source: DESNZ, 2022 UK Greenhouse Gas Emissions, provisional figures
BEIS, 2021 UK Greenhouse Gas Emissions (final)
Release: Both annual

Commentary:

The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting restrictions in 2020 and 2021 had a significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2021, emissions increased by 5.0% compared to 2020, but were still lower than in 2019 by 5.3% (the most recent pre-pandemic year).

2. UK greenhouse gas emissions by sector

Sector	UK territorial greenhouse gas emissions (MtCO₂e)	% of total territorial emissions
Energy supply	86.9	20.4%
Business	75.3	17.7%
Transport (including domestic aviation and shipping)	109.5	25.7%
Public	7.5	1.8%
Residential	69.4	16.3%
Agriculture	47.9	11.2%
Industrial processes	10.3	2.4%
Land use, land use change, forestry	1.1	0.3%
Waste management	18.7	4.4%
International aviation and shipping	19.5	0 (% not included in breakdown of UK)

Source: BEIS, 2021 UK Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Release: Annual

Commentary: In 2021, COVID-19 restrictions were eased, and people were able to travel more freely, resulting in an increase in greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector compared to 2020. However, domestic aviation emissions (which fell by more than half in 2020 compared to 2019) were 49% lower than in 2021 compared to 2019.

3. Total projected greenhouse gas savings from HMG policies included in the Energy and Emissions Projections (EEP)

Total projected greenhouse gas emissions savings^{[Note 1]} from HMG policies (excluding power sector interventions)^{[Note 2]}, MtCO₂e

Carbon Budget	Total projected greenhouse gas savings from HMG policies (MtCO₂e)
Carbon budget 4 (period 2023-27)	328.5
Carbon budget 5 (period 2028-32)	398.1
Carbon budget 6 (period 2033-37)	460.0

Source: BEIS, Updated energy and emissions projections 2021 to 2040
Release: Annual

Notes:

The projections take account of policies that have been implemented and those that are planned - where the level of funding has been agreed and the design of the policy is near final i.e. where there are no outstanding decisions on intervention design or funding that might materially affect their impact. These policies together are referred to as ‘EEP-ready’ policies.
Power supply markets are highly interconnected. This means we cannot disentangle the impacts of individual policies. Projected emission savings from power sector interventions can be found in the Updated Energy Emission Projections: 2021-2040 - in Annex D.

Commentary:

From the fourth carbon budget period onwards, we project higher territorial GHG savings compared with the NZS baseline projections (the name for the previous EEP, published in 2021)
For the fourth carbon budget period, the savings from policies in the EEP are 19 MtCO2E more than the NZS
For the fifth carbon budget period, the savings from policies in the EEP are 39 MtCO2E more than the NZS
For the sixth carbon budget period, the savings from policies in the EEP are 54 MtCO2E more than the NZS

4. Low-carbon share of electricity generation (percentage)^{[Note 1]}

Year	Low-carbon share of electricity generation (%)
2022 (provisional)	56%
2021	55%
2020	59%

Source: DESNZ, Energy Trends 2022 / Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES), 2021
Release: Monthly / Annually

Notes:

Low carbon sources include wind, wave, solar, hydro, nuclear, and other renewables, such as bioenergy. Figures cover domestic electricity generation only.

Commentary:

A decrease in nuclear electricity generation meant the share of generation from low-carbon sources fell between 2020 and 2021. This was the lowest amount of nuclear generation in more than 20 years as all the UK’s nuclear plants were on outage at times during the year.
Generation from renewable sources decreased between 2020 and 2021. This was driven by decreased wind generation, which was down 14 percent despite increased capacity. This was because of unusually low average wind speeds across most of 2021. Weather conditions were also less favourable for hydro and solar generators.

5. Total low carbon and renewable energy economy (LCREE) jobs (ONS estimates)

Direct employment in low carbon and renewable energy economy (LCREE) in the UK and constituent countries.

2021: 247,400 (full-year equivalent)
Difference vs 2020: 16.4%

Source: ONS, Low carbon and renewable energy economy estimates
Release: Released February 2023

Commentary (taken from the ONS publication):

The employment estimates are at their highest level since the first comparable figures in 2015.
Employment increased by 16.4% between 2020 and 2021, from 212,600 full-time equivalents (FTEs) to 247,400.
The construction industry had the highest LCREE employment at 91,000 FTEs (36.8%).
Although a proportion of this observed increase in employment could be attributed to the recovery of the UK economy from the COVID-19 pandemic, this is not likely to be the whole picture.

6. Progress towards the target of installing at least 600,000 heat pumps per year by 2028

Year	Annual heat pump installations
2021	55,000
2020	38,000
2019	44,000

Source: Powering Up Britain: Net Zero Growth Plan and Carbon Budget Delivery Plan - analysis methodology (technical annex), 2023
Release: n/a

Commentary: This document reports heat pump sales volumes as a proxy for the number of installations (as reported in Building Services Research and Information Association (BSRIA) 2022, ‘Heat Pumps Market Analysis 2021 – United Kingdom’). No reliable data source currently collects data on annual heat pump installations in the UK.

7. Progress to net zero and energy efficiency (sectoral indicators)

This is provided in these 2 publications:

8. Policy gap to carbon budgets

Details on the gap between quantified policies and proposals vs carbon budget levels is provided in the Carbon Budget Delivery Plan
Details on both quantified and unquantified policies and proposals to meet carbon budgets is set out in the Carbon Budget Delivery Plan - Appendix B

Unleash innovation and accelerate science and technology throughout the country to increase productivity and UK global influence

R&D Investment and Levelling Up

BEIS was a driving force behind the government’s commitment to increasing public expenditure on R&D to £20 billion per annum by 2024/2025. This represents a cash increase of around a third and is the largest ever increase in public R&D budget over a Spending Review (SR) period.

This increase in public funding must leverage private sector spend too. That is why we increased funding for core Innovate UK programmes – which are successful in drawing in private sector leverage – to reach £686 million in 2022-23. This is over £300 million (66%) more per year than in 2021-22. This will support business in bringing innovations to market.

As part of the government’s levelling up mission to increase domestic public investment in R&D outside the greater south east by at least 40% by 2030, we progressed work in the department to significantly increase total domestic R&D funding outside the greater south east by 2024-2025.

In this spirit, £100 million was announced through the Innovation Accelerators programme to accelerate the growth of 3 high-potential innovation clusters in Glasgow, Greater Manchester, and the west midlands. Innovation Strategy implementation progress

In addition to spending commitments, we made good progress on implementing the UK Innovation Strategy across government. As part of this, we:

established the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), an independent research body to fund high-risk, high-reward scientific research.
published the UK Measurement Strategy, which describes how the UK will capitalise on our world-leading National Measurement System in the 2020s and beyond.
published the independent review by Sir Paul Nurse on the Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI) organisational landscape – the review examined the mix of UK organisations performing RDI and made recommendations to make the most of the research landscape.
continued to implement the R&D People and Culture Strategy – this was overseen by the R&D People and Culture Ministerial Coordination Group which was established last year.

International science and research

This year, we demonstrated our international leadership in tackling big global challenges. We launched the International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF). ISPF is a new global research fund to deepen scientific collaboration between the UK and international R&D powers. It was announced in December with an initial £119 million in UK government funding.

The Integrated Review Refresh 2023 reaffirmed the Prime Minister’s commitment to making S&T a priority element of our wider bilateral partnerships. Together with FCDO, DSIT also published the UK’s International Technology Strategy in March 2023, further detailing how we will deliver the UK’s technology ambition on the world stage.

We also updated our bilateral partnerships with Israel, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, South Africa, New Zealand, Singapore, and India. In addition, we built on the research compact agreed at Carbis Bay with our G7 partners, with a focus on open science and research security.

Horizon Europe and Pioneer

Regarding Horizon Europe, the government’s priority is to support the UK’s R&D sector and ensure strong international collaboration opportunities for UK research. That is why in March 2023, September and December 2022, the government extended the Horizon Europe guarantee scheme to ensure funding for UK researchers, businesses, and innovators. Originally launched in November 2021, UKRI has now issued grants worth over £1 billion by 4 April 2023. The March 2023 extension will support eligible, successful applicants, covering calls that will close on or before 30 June 2023.

Throughout this year, we have worked to prepare a Plan B, Pioneer, which was our bold and ambitious alternative to Horizon Europe. However, the government was also in discussions with the EU on the UK’s involvement with Horizon Europe. Our preference is for negotiations to be successful. For a further update, see events after the reporting period in the notes to accounts. Space

We published the National Space Strategy in 2021. Following this, in 2022-23, we worked with industry and focused on the priority areas set out in our 10 Point Plan. Our successes included:

recommitting to our deep partnership with the European Space Agency through a record £1.84 billion investment
first attempted launch to space from Cornwall – although the satellites weren’t successfully place into orbit the launch generated huge public interest in space and set the UK on course as a launch nation.
providing global leadership through the UK’s Plan for Space Sustainability.

Contribution to SDGs

Goal 8: Promote sustained inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all

BEIS made levelling up an objective of its R&D investment strategy. We have been working to increase public investment in R&D outside the Greater Southeast.

Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation

As part of ongoing delivery of the Innovation Strategy - we launched ARIA, published the UK Measurement Strategy, and published the consultation response on a potential national capability in digital twinning and cyber-physical infrastructure
We published the independent review of the research, development, and innovation (RDI) organisational landscape.

Metrics

1. Gross expenditure research and development as % of GDP

Year	Gross expenditure research and development as % of GDP
2022	0% (not released yet)
2021	0% (not released yet)
2020	0% (not released yet)
2019	1.74%
2018	1.72%
2017	1.67%
2016	1.65%

Source: ONS, Gross domestic expenditure on research and development, UK : 2018
Release: Annually, with a 2-year lag

Commentary:

In 2023, ONS updated its methodology for R&D performed by businesses, which affected calculation of this metric. ONS has not yet published updated estimates with the new methodology.
Using the new methodology, DSIT ’s in-house calculation estimate a range of 2.6-2.7% for 2019, 2.9-3.0% for 2020 and 2.8-2.9% for 2021. The range is due to the GDP figure still being finalised by ONS. The increase in 2020 was due to Covid 19 causing GDP to be lower in 2020.
Due to the different methodology, we cannot compare new figures to ONS previously released figures.

2. Business enterprise research and development as % of GDP

Year	Business enterprise research and development (R&D) as % of GDP
2022	0% (not released yet)
2021	0% (not released yet)
2020	1.3%
2019	1.2%
2018	1.1%
2017	1.1%
2016	1.1%

Source: ONS, Business enterprise research and development, UK : 2021
Release: Annually, with a 1-year lag

Commentary:

Business R&D investment makes up most of R&D investment.
ONS has changed how it estimates R&D performed by businesses, which affects this metric. ONS has not yet published updated estimates with the new methodology.
Using the new methodology, DSIT ’s in-house calculation estimates 1.9% for 2019, and 2.1% for 2020. This is due to GDP being lower due to COVID in 2020. The estimate for 2021 was 2.0%, as the GDP increased again. +Due to the different methodology, we cannot compare new figures to ONS previously released figures.

3. Percentage of businesses that are innovation active, including by region

Year	Percentage of businesses that are innovation active, including by region
2020‑2022	0% (not released yet)
2018‑2020	45%
2016‑2018	38%

Source: UK Innovation Survey
Release: Every 2 years

Commentary:

There has been an increase in the percentage of innovation active businesses from 38% in 2016 to 45% in 2020.
This metric measures businesses who have introduced a new or significantly improved product (goods or service) or process; engaged in innovation projects not yet complete or abandoned; or introduced new and significantly improved forms of organisation, business structures or practices and marketing concepts or strategies.
It is a more inclusive measure of innovation activity as it accounts for activities outside of R&D investment.

4. Number of spinouts

Year	Number of spinouts
2022‑2023	0% (not released yet)
2021‑2022	1,934
2020‑2021	1,852
2019‑2020	1,761
2018‑2019	1,675
2017‑2018	1,530
2016‑2017	1,416

Source: HESA
Release: Annually, and corresponds to the previous academic year

Commentary:

There has been a steady increase in the number of active spinouts year in year, showing a positive trend.

5. Count of published international patent families from UK applicants

Year	Count of published international patent families from UK applicants
2022	0% (not released yet)
2021	5,441
2020	7,229
2019	7,201
2018	6,661
2017	6,973
2016	6,607

Source: PATSTAT, calculated by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO)
Release: Annually by the IPO, not published

Commentary:

This metric provides an overall picture of the global influence of UK patents activities.
There has been a steady decline in the number of international patents from UK applicants. This is in line with a global decrease in patenting activity.

6. Field weighted citation impact

Year	Field weighted citation impact
2022	1.53
2021	1.57
2020	1.55
2019	1.57
2018	1.51
2017	1.54
2016	1.56

Source: @SciVal
Release: Annually

Commentary:

Field weight citation impact (FWCI) is the ratio of the actual citations received by an academic output to the average number of citations received by all other similar academic outputs. A FWCI of more than 1 means the entity’s publications has been cited more than would be expected based on the global average for similar publications.
FWCI has ranged between 1.57 to 1.51 in the past few years. From 2021 to 2022, it declined from 1.57 to 1.53.
While there has been some fluctuation in this metric over the given period, the reported numbers are above the EU average FWCI of 1.16.

7. Percentage of businesses introducing new goods/services not already available in the market (New to firm)

Year	Percentage of businesses introducing new goods/services already available in the market (New to firm)
2022	0% (not released yet)
2021	0% (not released yet)
2020	11.6%
2019	11.6%
2018	12.7%
2017	12.7%
2016	14.8%

Source: UK Innovation Survey
Release: Every 2 years

Commentary:

There has been a decline in this metric since 2016. The percentage of firms introducing new goods to the firm has fallen from 14.8% in 2016 to 11.6% in 2020.
This measures businesses who have introduced new goods/services already available in the market. Generally, countries with high levels of innovation exhibit high rates of adoption.
The UK Innovation Survey 2021 Report found that issues relating to the coronavirus pandemic was the highest rated barrier to innovation. Excessive perceived economic risks, withdrawal from the European Union and UK government regulations were the other factors rated as ‘high’ importance as a barrier to innovation.

8. Share of World top 2500 R&D companies

Year	Share of World top 2500 R&D companies
2022	3.80%
2021	4.20%
2020	4.80%
2019	5.08%
2018	5.40%
2017	5.36%
2016	5.32%

Source: Joint Research Centre (European Commission)
Release: Annually

Commentary:

There has been a decline in this metric relative to 2016 levels, having fallen from 5.32% in 2016 to 3.8% in 2022.

Risk profile

The following risks were managed in the period from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023. The formulation of these risks was based on potential events that could impact the delivery of BEIS’ departmental objectives.

Key

Risk rating:

Severity of risk – a combination of impact and likelihood.

High
Medium
Low

Change in the year:

Increasing risk
Stable
Decreasing risk

Mapped to BEIS priorities:

Fighting coronavirus
Enterprise: Backing long-term growth
Net zero: Tackling climate change
Innovation: Unleashing a science superpower

Risks continuing from 2021-22

Risk	Mitigating activities	Risk rating and change in the year	BEIS priorities
Inability to lead the global fight to tackle climate change in line with the Paris Agreement	- We worked more intensively with international partners to set objectives and make interventions. - We targeted International Climate Fund (ICF) activities with the biggest effects on green recovery and country-specific needs. - We ensured the team was sufficiently resourced through business planning.	Medium / Stable	- Enterprise - Innovation - Net zero
Failure to meet carbon budgets due to measures to mitigate climate change not reducing emissions sufficiently	- We developed long term plans for key enablers, e.g., green investment. - We developed business models for greenhouse gas removal technologies. - We strengthened the governance of the Climate Change Integrated Review Implementation Group. - We published the Carbon Budget Delivery Plan.	Medium / Decreasing risk (Risk rating decreased to medium due to effective mitigation.)	- Enterprise - Innovation - Net zero
Unaffordable energy bills – gas price rises	- We set up the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) scheme for domestic consumers - to limit the amount suppliers can charge per unit or energy. - For non-domestic consumers - we set up the Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS), and the Alternative Fuel Payments scheme.	High / Increasing risk	- Enterprise
Catastrophic or severe incident affecting energy or nuclear critical national infrastructure	- We worked with the Office for Nuclear Regulation to maintain standards for safety and security. - We ensured civil nuclear sites had robust safety and security arrangements. - We worked with industry to mitigate cyber risks not addressed in regulation.	Medium / Stable (Risk rating remains static due to our commitment to ensuring energy infrastructure is kept secure.)	- Enterprise - Innovation - Net zero
Delivery of parts of our policy agenda is less effective and impactful due to a deterioration in relationships with one or more of the devolved administrations (DA)	- We developed and embedded the BEIS Union strategy and Action Plan 2022. - We coordinated DA relationships to support the delivery of objectives. - We upskilled staff on the Devolution and Union agenda.	Medium / Decreasing risk	- Enterprise - Innovation - Net zero
Workforce capacity and capability is not prioritised in the right areas	- We monitored emerging risks, particularly around capacity and reprioritised. - We reviewed workforce capacity against departmental priorities.	Medium / Decreasing risk (Risk rating decreased to medium due to effective mitigation.)	- Enterprise - Innovation - Net zero
Staff wellbeing is not supported sufficiently	- We supported wellbeing during the MOG , via workshops and other sessions, and monitored staff morale. - We managed recruitment to ensure high priority roles were filled.	Medium / Stable	- Enterprise - Innovation - Net zero
Financial constraints could limit our ability to deliver our objectives and ambitions	- We reviewed forecasts for value and volatility. - We had quarterly deep dives into specific budgets to identify risks and how to manage over/underspends. - We discussed emerging issues with HM Treasury.	Medium / Stable	- Enterprise - Innovation - Net zero
Legal budget and resources are not managed effectively	- We monitored total spend, planned future costs, and sought best practice from other departments. - We worked on a new BEIS/ GLD working model	High / Increasing risk (Risk rating increased to high due to demand across BEIS for legal support.)	- Enterprise - Innovation - Net zero
Non-compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED)	- We published an annual progress report on GOV.UK. - We focused on the process for internal clearance, developed a monitoring and evaluation framework and improved PSED guidance.	Medium / Stable	- Enterprise - Innovation - Net zero
Sensitive information is compromised or lost through cyber‑attack, eavesdropping, theft, mistakes, or leaks	- We completed the destruction of highly sensitive, mostly historical, documents held in BEIS. - We increased investment in holistic security, weaving threads from personnel, physical, cyber, cultural and resilience. - We maintained strong cyber defences and invested against emerging threats. We enhanced security awareness across the department.	High / Increasing risk (Rating remains high due to the increasing nature of cyber-attacks, and importance of staff safety.)	- Enterprise - Innovation - Net zero

Risks newly identified in 2022-23

Risk	Mitigating activities	Risk rating and change in the year	BEIS priorities
Insufficient energy infrastructure to meet supply demands	- We developed options to reduce demand and progressed options to increase storage capacity. - We strengthened market monitoring tools to support decision making.	Medium / Stable	- Enterprise - Net zero
Failure to implement our responsibilities within the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA)	- We ensured there was appropriate governance and strategic foresight to implement BEIS’ work on trade and Europe.	Medium / Stable	- Enterprise
Failure to push forward bigger policy reforms that could really help the economy return to growth	- We identified significant areas (including economic growth) and ensured they were considered in our programme of work. - We worked with HMT to shape the forward strategy.	Medium / Decreasing risk	- Enterprise - Innovation - Net zero
Lack of capacity to engage with business and gather intelligence as expected by HMG and stakeholders	- We re-introduced BEIS Winter Planning – and planned resource for different scenarios, particularly for Northern Ireland Protocol and Retained EU Law. - We worked with No.10 through the Business Engagement Steering Group. - We expanded the reach of the cross-government Economic Surveillance Dashboard.	High / Increasing risk	- Enterprise - Net zero
Unfunded and unresourced pressures in steel, chemicals etc. and other unforeseen shocks requiring rapid mobilisation of resources, affecting BAU	- We planned for the deprioritisation of non-time critical work when needed	Medium / Stable	- Enterprise - Innovation - Net zero
UK science system not ready to deliver the alternative UK programmes to Horizon, Euratom and Copernicus	- We developed short and long-term packages to support the fusion sector. - We worked with delivery partners such as UKRI to ensure transitions were ready to launch before final decisions were made. - We worked with HMT to agree which Plan B proposals would be funded in the event of non-association. - On 7 September 2023, the UK government and European Commission concluded negotiations and reached an agreement in principle on the association of the UK to Horizon Europe and Copernicus under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.	High / Increasing risk	- Enterprise - Innovation - Net zero
Failure to recruit, embed and retain specialist resources	- We prioritised projects and programmes to allocate resource to. - We increased the use of external consultancy workers to provide extra capacity. - We engaged more with staff to understand issues and prevent excessive churn.	High / Increasing risk	- Enterprise - Innovation - Net zero

Risks closed or de-escalated in 2022-23

Risk	Mitigating activities (during the year, before closure)	Closure narrative	BEIS priorities
Sharp and sustained rise in gas prices significantly affecting business and a range of consumers	- We addressed resourcing issues related to the Gas Price Programme. - We monitored trends. - We established programmes of work to mitigate impacts over the short, medium, and long term. - We developed policies to protect vulnerable consumers.	Closed and re-articulated to focus on unaffordable energy bill prices for consumers	- Enterprise - Net zero
Risk to UK unilateral implementation of the provisions in the N I Protocol Command Paper and/or Article 16 triggering)	- We shared information with the centre regarding contingency planning. - We put in place initial contingency plans and long-term plans.	Closed due to the Windsor Framework being published which replaced the NIP	- Enterprise - Innovation - Net zero
Policies and programmes are inadequate to effectively support economic recovery and drive productivity growth	- We worked with HM Treasury on a plan for growth to support the economy. - We provided support packages to targeted businesses. - We developed an enterprise strategy and developed investment opportunities.	Closed and re-articulated to focus on policy and economic growth	- Fighting coronavirus - Enterprise
Maintaining the wellbeing of staff	- We reviewed the wellbeing strategy to aid future plans. - We encouraged senior leaders to role-model good practice. - We provided access to all appropriate wellbeing resources.	Closed and re-articulated to a new staff morale and wellbeing risk	- Enterprise - Innovation - Net zero - Fighting coronavirus
Onshoring investments become financially unviable or are unable to pivot to respond effectively to future health emergencies	- We understood and applied the lessons learned from previous investments. - We ensured plans for monitoring and evaluation captured the key investments and KPIs. - We followed the assurance and due diligence processes.	De-escalated and is now being managed at group level	- Fighting coronavirus - Innovation - Net zero
A security incident at work harms BEIS officials, ministers, or visitors	- We increased investment in holistic security, weaving threads from personnel, physical, cyber, cultural and resilience.	De-escalated and is now being managed at group level	- Enterprise - Innovation - Net zero
Communications budgets aren’t managed effectively	- We ensured areas were not assuming communications support where none existed. We ensured we were aware of all areas where communications FTE activity was planned to be funded. This ensured we took a holistic view of all activity for the SR period.	De-escalated and is now being managed at group level	- Enterprise - Innovation - Net zero - Fighting coronavirus

Financial review

The financial review analyses the department’s expenditure and financial position for the year.

Financial performance

Budget framework

Departmental budgets are split into Departmental Expenditure Limits (DEL) and Annually Managed Expenditure (AME) categories.

DEL: is for spending that is subject to limits, which departments may not exceed.
AME: departments need to monitor AME closely and inform Treasury if they expect AME spending to rise above forecast.

Budgets are also split into resource and capital categories.

Resource: captures current expenditure and is further split into programme and administration budgets. Programme budgets are for front line services. Administration budgets capture any expenditure not included in programme.
Capital: captures new investment and financial transactions.

The budgeting system is not based on cash accounting, but accruals accounting. TME is made up of DEL, AME, plus accounting adjustments.

Outturn for 2022-23

The diagram below shows the departmental outturn for 2022-23.

TME: Total managed expenditure – (£62,493m)

DEL – £31,458m

Resource DEL – £14,566m

Capital DEL – £16,893m

AME – (£93,952m)

Resource AME – (£95,080m)

Capital AME – £1,128m

Outturn compared to budget

This table ties directly to the SOPS, where the TME outturn is the ‘total voted and non-voted’ outturn. The DEL expenditure is analysed in ‘where we spent our money’.

2022-23

	Outturn £m	Budget £m	Variance £m	Variance %
DEL
Total DEL	31,458	37,304	-5,845	-15.7%
Resource DEL	14,566	17,446	-2,880	-16.5%
Capital DEL	16,893	19,858	-2,965	-14.9%
AME
Total AME	(93,952)	(26,472)	-67,480	-254.9%
Resource AME	(95,080)	(29,314)	-65,766	-224.4%
Capital AME	1,128	2,842	-1,714	-60.3%
TME
TME	(62,493)	10,832	-73,325	-676.9%

2022-23 Outturn compared to budget: variance analysis

Resource DEL:
The underspend of £2.9 billion (16.5%) was primarily due to:

£0.4 billion underspend against the budget for the Energy Bills Support Scheme +£2.1 billion underspend against the budget for the Energy Special Administration Regime (SAR)

Capital DEL:
The underspend of £3.0 billion (14.9%) was primarily due to:

£1.9 billion underspend against the budget for the Energy SAR
£0.8 billion underspend for the British Business Bank and associated bodies Resource AME

The underspend of £65.8 billion (224.4%) was primarily due to:

An underspend against the budget for the energy price support schemes of £7.9 billion grants and subsidies and £17.4 billion noncash provisions
An underspend of £16.4 billion in Resource AME arising from requested budget cover for a potential provision relating to grant funding that was not required as a result of the UK negotiating to become an associate member of the E U ’s Horizon Europe, Euratom Research and Training and International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) programmes
uncertainties at the time of budgeting for the CfD valuation resulting in an underspend of £19.7 billion in Resource AME
uncertainties at the time of budgeting for the nuclear decommissioning provision of £5.0 billion in Resource AME

Capital AME:
The underspend of £1.7 billion (60.3%) was primarily due to:

An underspend of £1.2 billion relating to funding that was not required as a result of the UK negotiating to become an associate member of the EU ’s Horizon Europe, Euratom Research and Training and International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) programme
An underspend of £0.7 billion relating to the Post Office working capital loan
Partially offset by an overspend of £0.3 billion in relation to COVID-19 financial guarantees for which there were significant uncertainties when setting the budget

Outturn trend

	2022‑23 £m	2021‑22 £m	2020‑21 £m	2019‑20 £m	2018‑19 £m
DEL
Resource DEL	14,566	8,712	22,496	2,838	1,246
Capital DEL	16,893	20,992	20,450	11,228	10,814
AME
Resource AME	(95,080)	115,150	(8,152)	19,915	(105,865)
Capital AME	1,128	(3,790)	19,544	(137)	(416)

Outturn trend – biggest areas of net expenditure:
The table below shows the department’s biggest areas of net expenditure taken from the SOPS.

	2022‑23 £m	2021‑22 £m	2020‑21 £m	2019‑20 £m	2018‑19 £m
Nuclear Decommissioning Authority	(107,667)	103,362	3,473	6,751	(99,592)
Science and research (excluding UKRI)	1,403	1,236	1,158	981	959
Contracts for Difference	(13,491)	10,286	468	3,543	(2,971)
UK Research & Innovation (UKRI)	9,410	8,708	9,090	7,881	7,604
Coal Authority	(3,328)	3,168	274	58	(1,993)
Green Infrastructure Platform	0	(74)	(87)	9	11
Renewable Heat Incentive	1,002	920	848	846	818
International Climate Finance	249	431	584	339	321
Post Office	145	233	115	92	228
Redundancy payment service	263	261	442	431	319
COVID-19 business support grant schemes	2	3,852	8,050	10,976	-
COVID-19 business loan guarantee schemes	987	(2,566)	21,281	-	-
Future Fund	142	(16)	1,151	-	-
Nuclear Liabilities Fund	-	5,610	5,070	-	-
Energy SAR	1,297	2,136	-	-	-
Energy price support	43,531	-	-	-	-
Other	3,562	3,515	2,423	1,937	75
Total	(62,493)	141,065	54,340	33,844	(94,221)

Reconciliation of budgets to financial statements

BEIS’ financial statements are based on international financial reporting standards (IFRS). IFRS is the basis generally applied by private sector businesses. A reconciliation between the SOPS and I F R S is shown in SOPS 2 on page 140.

In the financial statements, net expenditure for the departmental group fell by £178.9 billion from £129.8 billion in 2021-22 to a credit of £49.1 billion in 2022-23. The majority of this was an accounting adjustment, which is not a cash change. The adjustment reduced the provision to cover future expenses by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) by £116 billion due to HM Treasury changes in discount rates.

Expenditure on Official Development Assistance

The UK ’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) refers to the overseas aid budget. ODA expenditure is reported for the calendar year and on a cash basis.

BEIS’ ODA expenditure (provisional) in 2022 was £563.2 million. It supports research and innovation (R&I) and climate and energy. The table below shows a breakdown by sector.

The BEIS ICF spend focuses on climate mitigation particularly in countries where emissions are growing rapidly. It aims to accelerate clean energy transition, raise climate ambition, enable low-carbon growth, address deforestation.

BEIS ODA spend by sector^{[Note 1]}

Sector	Sector code	R&I £m	ICF £m	2023 Total £m	2022 Total £m
Education, level unspecified	111	0.2	-	0.2	13.9
Secondary education	113	0.0	-	0.0	0.1
Post-secondary education	114	1.2	-	1.2	8.0
Health, general	121	78.4	-	78.4	89.8
Basic health	122	3.9	-	3.9	17.2
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs)	123	0.5	-	0.5	0.9
Population policies/programmes & reproductive health	130	0.4	-	0.4	2.3
Water supply & sanitation	140	0.6	-	0.6	1.6
Government & civil society-general	151	1.8	-	1.8	6.8
Conflict, peace & security	152	0.4	-	0.4	1.5
Other social infrastructure & services	160	0.1	-	0.1	1.8
Transport & storage	210	0.1	4	4.1	0.0
Communications	220	0.1	-	0.1	0.1
Energy	230	0.0	-	0.0	1.0
Energy policy	231	0.2	10.5	10.7	6.8
Energy generation, renewable sources	232	5.9	20.3	26.2	132.8
Energy distribution	236	0.0	-	0.0	0.3
Banking & financial services	240	0.1	2.7	2.8	2.1
Business & other services	250	0.5	0.6	1.1	0.6
Agriculture	311	9.4	-	9.4	27.5
Forestry	312	0.0	50.3	50.3	69.8
Fishing	313	0.1	-	0.1	1.3
Industry	321	2.1	-	2.1	6.6
Mineral resources & mining	322	0.0	-	0.0	0.3
Construction	323	0.1	-	0.1	0.0
General environment protection	410	34.3	33.9	68.2	71.6
Other Multisector	430	94.9	10.6	105.5	140.1
Emergency response	720	0.1	-	0.1	0.1
Disaster prevention & preparedness	740	0.7	-	0.7	0.9
Administrative costs of donors	910	12.2	8.1	20.3	29.8
Unallocated / unspecified	998	1.4	172.4	173.8	292.2
Total		249.8	313.4	563.2	927.8

Notes:

These figures are provisional. The final 2022 Statistics on International Development (SID) is due to be published by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in late September 2023.

Financial position

Assets and liabilities

The table below shows the value of assets and liabilities for the departmental group. As at 31 March 2023, the department remains in a net liability position. Net liabilities have decreased from (£273.3 billion) at 31 March 2022 to (£142.0 billion) at 31 March 2023. The following items have had the biggest effect on financial position this year: COVID-19 financial guarantees and business support grants, changes in discount rates, provision for NDA , provision for contracts for difference.

	31‑Mar‑23 £m	31‑Mar‑22 £m	31‑Mar‑21 £m	31‑Mar‑20 £m	31‑Mar‑19 £m
Assets	36,679	29,419	24,089	18,249	17,709
Liabilities	178,698	302,785	(187,869)	175,882	157,154
Net assets/ liabilities	(141,937)	(273,366)	(163,780)	(157,633)	(139,445)

COVID-19 financial guarantees

The decrease in liabilities in relation to COVID-19 financial guarantees schemes is reflective of companies drawing down guarantees associated with these schemes, as well as the updated model valuation of the expected credit losses. Further information is provided in note 21.

	31‑Mar‑23 £bn	31‑Mar‑22 £bn	31‑Mar‑21 £bn
Financial guarantee loan schemes	11.3	15.8	19.8

Loan to Bulb Energy Ltd (in special administration)

In 2022-23 Bulb’s special administrators have run an open and competitive sale process which has identified a buyer for Bulb’s customer book and specified assets and liabilities, Octopus Energy. In order to realise the sale of Bulb’s business and to protect consumers, government assisted Bulb in providing support to a new and separate entity, owned by Octopus Energy, which will operate and serve Bulb customers until the transfer process to Octopus has fully completed and the entity has repaid the funding to Bulb.

In 2022-23, the impact of the government’s assistance to Bulb can be seen on the Statement of Financial Position recognised as a loan. The value of the loan totals £2.4 billion at 31 March 2023 in comparison to £Nil billion at 31 March 2022. This is reflective of the fair value of the contract which is defined under International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) as “the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date”. This is different to the actual amount that is expected to be repaid by Bulb under the terms of the funding agreement. Further information can be seen in note 11.3.

Changes in discount rates

Discount rates heavily impact the value reported for some liabilities. Liabilities that involve payments over many years must be discounted to their value in today’s money or present value and summed into a single figure. This is an accounting adjustment. The department has liabilities that extend over decades. This means that a small change in the discount rate can greatly affect the present value of the liability. The accounts use several discount rates depending on the nature of the transaction.

In 2022-23, liabilities were discounted at a negative rate. The present value of the liabilities is therefore higher than the value the department expects to pay in the future. Assets were discounted as positive rates - this means that the present value is lower than the cash the department expects to receive.

Assets are discounted at positive rates. This means that the present value is lower than the cash the department expects to receive. For financial instruments the department is required to use the prescribed HM Treasury discount rate of 1.9% nominal, or the rate of return implicit in the contract if higher. For the loan to Bulb, the department assessed the implicit rate to be GBP SONIA zero rate curve as at the 31 March 2023 for each payment date with a credit spread of 1.75%.

The table below shows the impact of discounting on our assets and liabilities.

	2022‑23 No discounting £m	2022‑23 With discounting £m	2022‑23 Impact of discounting £m	2021‑22 Impact of discounting £m	2021‑22 With discounting £m	2021‑22 No discounting £m
Assets
Financial asset: Bulb	2,659	2,406	(253)	-	-	-
Financial asset: Repayable Launch Investments	327	252	(75)	(82)	463	545
Financial asset: Coal pension receivable	488	452	(36)	(56)	575	631
Total	3,474	3,110	(364)	(138)	1,038	1,176
Liabilities
NDA nuclear provision	172,800	124,371	(48,429)	87,873	236,766	148,893
Coal Authority provision	10,205	2,211	(7,994)	(2,841)	5,618	8,459
COVID-19 financial guarantees	11,459	11,284	(175)	(260)	15,806	16,066
CfD liabilities (recognised and deferred liabilities) (financial instrument)	86,051	84,506	(1,545)	4,366	97,591	93,225
Total	280,515	222,372	(58,143)	89,138	355,781	266,643

Provision for NDA

NDA manage the decommissioning of 17 nuclear licensed sites in the UK and this carries a long-term obligation of 100+ years. The estimate of future costs over 100 years is shown in the table below.

Best estimate £bn	Lower estimate £bn	Upper estimate £bn
124	109	206

The NDA reviews the cost estimates each year, reflecting changes in the site lifetime plans and other assumptions.

Provision for contracts for difference

The department is required to estimate the ‘fair value’ of future CFD payments. If difference payments under CFD s are positive, they are shown as an asset, and if negative, they are shown as a liability. They are currently shown as a liability. The value is shown in the table below. Further details on the CFD s are in the note 10 to the accounts. The fair value of future CFD payments, include movements year on year.

	31‑Mar‑23 £bn	31‑Mar‑22 £bn	31‑Mar‑21 £bn
Cumulative value of the deferred differences of the CfDs	71.1	70.7	72

Sustainability report

Greening Government Commitments

The Greening Government Commitments (GGCs) provide a framework for government departments to reduce their impacts on the environment. The current framework is for 2021‑25, with targets to be achieved by March 2025, using 2017-18 as a baseline year^{[Note 1]}. The target and reported figures are for the BEIS G G C family – consisting of the core department and 17 partner organisations^{[Notes 2,3]} within scope, as determined by DEFRA.

Overall performance: targets compared to outcomes

	GGC targets by Mar 2025	2022-23 outcomes
Overall emissions	62% reduction	48% reduction
Direct emissions	30% reduction	16% reduction
Ultra-low emission vehicle: less than 50g CO2 per km	25% of fleet by 31 Dec 2022	32% of fleet
Domestic flights	reduce emissions by 30%	61% reduction
Overall waste	15% reduction	55% reduction
Landfill	reduce to less than 5% of overall waste	6% of overall waste
Recycling	increase to 70% of overall waste	62% of overall waste
Paper use	reduce by 50%	81% reduction
Usage	reduce by 8%	18% reduction

Notes:

Where data for the baseline year 2017-18 has not been available for an organisation or a specific target, the next available year’s data or a suitable estimation has been used.
BEIS GGC family includes: 1) ACAS, 2. Coal Authority, 3. Companies House, 4. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), 5. Financial Reporting Council (FRC), 6. Insolvency Service (INSS), 7. Intellectual Property Office, 8. H M Land Registry, 9. Met Office, 10. North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), 11. National Physical Laboratory, 12. National Nuclear Laboratory, 13. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), 14. OFGEM, 15. Ordnance Survey, 16. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), 17. UK Space Agency
Figures for 2021-22 and 2017-18 have been restated to include OFGEM.

GHG emissions and associated energy consumption:
We implemented energy efficiency improvements in our offices. We also moved towards greener or renewable sources where possible.

Travel:
Official business travel increased in 2022-23 as opportunities increased for in person meetings after the COVID-19 pandemic. But travel is still below the baseline year, and we are on track to achieve this target. The core department launched a sustainable business travel policy. It encourages colleagues only to travel when necessary for business, and to travel by train rather than plane.

Waste:
The core department continued to encourage colleagues to reduce the amount of waste produced.

Water:
We continued to reduce water use and will consider newer technologies as they become available.

Consumer-single use plastic and re-use schemes:
The core department has eliminated a wide range of consumer single use plastics, such as plastic cutlery and cups. In 2022-23, we implemented a reuse scheme for project waste, to reduce our impact on the environment and to add social value where we can.

Climate change adaptation strategy:
The core department carried out a climate change assessment in 2022–23 across its estate and operations. It identified the greatest risks from climate change at each office location. The next stage will be to finalise an adaptation plan to address these risks, which would be implemented by the new departments.

Climate change adaptation:
In the core department, our policy and programme proposals go through regulation approvals by preparing an impact assessment, and spending approvals by preparing a business case. In both documents, we address how the proposal will contribute to wider government priorities, including net zero.

Nature recovery plan:
The aim of the nature recovery plan is to protect, and where possible enhance the biodiversity on our estate. In 2022–23, our focus was on climate change adaptation strategy. Nature recovery plans will be addressed by the new successor departments.

Sustainable construction:
The core department had no significant construction or refurbishment projects in 2022-23.

Reducing environmental impacts from ICT and digital:
Our 2 main hardware suppliers now use recycled parts in their products, have reduced shipped packaging, and have started to look at their supply chains to ensure end to end ethical standards. 100% of our IT services – such as data, emails, and document storage – are delivered via the public cloud. Our public cloud suppliers are working to be net zero by 2030. We have reported our measures and tangible outcomes to DEFRA. This is published in the star report.

Greenhouse gas emissions

	2022‑23 (Tonnes CO₂e)	2021‑22 restated (Tonnes CO₂e)	2017‑18 restated (Tonnes CO₂e)
Scope 1 direct emissions from sources owned or controlled	20,136	21,206	26,098
Scope 2 indirect emissions from consumption of purchased electricity or sources of energy generated upstream	56,790	61,541	131,345
Scope 3 emissions from domestic and international travel	15,179	7,856	12,792
Total	92,105	90,263	170,235

Notes:

Scope 3: Includes emissions from domestic and international travel. Only domestic business travel is measured for G G C emissions reduction target. For a breakdown of domestic and international travel, see travel data below.

Energy consumption

	2022‑23	2021‑22 restated	2017‑18 restated
MWh
Gas	102,153	109,409	109,356
Electricity: renewable (generated on site or purchased via a green tariff)	109,693	215,178	3,529
Electricity: mains standard	175,132	65,227	325,142
Other energy sources ^{[Note 1]}	23,457	28,132	33,061
Total related energy use	410,435	417,945	471,088
Expenditure £000
Gas	5,112	-	-
Electricity	55,045	-	-
Other energy sources	1,222	-	-
Gross expenditure on the purchase of energy	61,379	48,229	37,527
Expenditure on accredited offset purchases	39	0	0
Total related expenditure^{[Note 2]}	61,418	48,229	37,527

Notes:

‘Other’ includes other energy sources and energy consumption where this cannot be broken down between gas/electricity.
Insolvency Service not included in 2022-23 expenditure data.

Travel

	2022‑23	2021‑22 restated	2017‑18 restated
Tonnes CO₂e
International travel:
- Long haul air travel	2,840	794	6,031
- Short haul air travel	650	179	1,223
- International rail (Eurostar)	3	0	20
- total	3,493	973	7,274
Domestic travel:
- Domestic air travel	395	128	1,004
- Rail (all rail types, including London Underground)	758	239	1,526
- Bus/Coach	12	1	91
- Taxi	81	26	85
- Private vehicle (staff owned or hire vehicles)	1,901	1,070	2,812
- total	3,147	1,464	5,518
Total emissions from travel	6,640	2,437	12,792
Expenditure £000
Expenditure on official business travel	19,635	7,083	21,662

Waste

	2022‑23	2021‑22 restated	2017‑18 restated
Tonnes
Total waste arising (excluding reused and ICT waste)	2,436	2,926	5,396
Of which:
- Recycled (excluding ICT waste)	1,353	1,753	3,529
- Reused (excluding ICT waste)	1	1	1
- ICT waste recycled, reused and recovered (externally)	26	92	73
- Composted / food waste	134	118	176
- Incinerated with energy recovery	735	674	1,010
- Incinerated without energy recovery	23	29	2
- Waste to landfill	164	259	606
- Of which: deemed hazardous	69	135	318
Expenditure £000
Total waste disposal cost ^{[Note 5]}	2,079	1,767	1,296

Notes:

5. OFGEM, ACAS, INSS and FRC not included in expenditure data for 2022-23.

Paper use

	2022‑23 (A4 ream equivalent)	2021‑22 restated (A4 ream equivalent)	2017‑18 restated (A4 ream equivalent)
Paper procured	24,650	46,214	129,255

Water

	2022‑23	2021‑22 restated	2017‑18 restated
m3
Water consumption	385,075	309,008	466,895
Expenditure £000
Water supply and sewage costs ^{[Note 6]}	1,719	1,026	1,105

Notes:

6. INSS , ACAS and CMA not included in expenditure data 2022-23.

Sustainable procurement

Embedding sustainability in our procurement practices in 2022-23

We continued to develop our procurement practices using the Commercial Continuous Improvement Assessment Framework (CCIAF) and ISO20400 (Sustainable Procurement) to guide us.
We followed Government Buying Standards (GBS) where applicable for our product specifications.
We embedded modern slavery risk assessments into our procurements and provided training to contract managers to improve awareness of tackling modern slavery in public sector supply chains.
We provided expert coaching to high-risk, material projects to help teams embed sustainability into their sourcing approaches.
We provided sustainability assurance to the high value projects submitted to the Commercial Assurance Board, from BEIS and our partner organisations.
We started to develop support resources, such as an assessment tool for commercial sustainability opportunities. It aims to consolidate priority themes into one place for BEIS.
The core department no longer directly procures food or catering services. In 2022-23, the existing contract for the core departments head office at 1 Victoria Street was transferred to the Government Property Agency (GPA). GPA are now responsible for the application of appropriate standards in the procurement of food and catering services. For all other office locations of the core department, any food and catering services are provided as part of the property agreements and not directly procured by the core department.

Prompt payments

	2022‑23	2021‑22	2020‑21	2019‑18
Invoices paid within 5 days	92.61%	87.24%	83.07%	94.3%
Invoices paid within 30 days	99.37%	98.87%	98.34%	99.1%

The government’s policy is to pay 80% of undisputed invoices (and 90% of SME invoices) within 5 days, with the remainder paid within 30 days. The noticeable improvement in the figures this year reflects a recovery to pre COVID-19 performance as spending patterns returned to normal. We publish our prompt payment performance on GOV.UK, quarterly, with a lag, in line with Cabinet Office publication requirements.

Spend with SMEs

	2022‑23	2021‑22	2020‑21	2019‑18
Share of direct procurement placed with SMEs	18.7%	10.5%	16.0%	30.3%
SME procurement	£565m	£496m	£504m	£410m

The share of direct SME procurement has been substantially affected by the COVID-19 vaccination programme which is centred on major pharmaceutical companies. The impact continued into the first half of 2022-23. However, since then spending patterns have returned to pre-pandemic levels. This has resulted in the improved SME share for the full year. Total SME spend has also risen to a new high. We publish our SME spend performance on GOV.UK, annually, with a lag, in line with Cabinet Office publication requirements.

Performance in other areas

Fraud and error analysis

Fraud detection, prevention, and estimates

The BEIS counter fraud team continued to develop their ability to prevent, detect and pursue fraud wherever it arises. Lessons have been learnt from the department’s approach to COVID-19 and that knowledge applied to new challenges such as the energy affordability schemes. Increased engagement with other government stakeholders, such as the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA), has enabled an expert-led counter fraud response to some of the department’s greatest risks. The counter fraud team worked closely with policy teams to complete Initial Fraud Impact Assessments (IFIAs) to identify the main fraud concerns. They also reviewed Fraud Risk Assessments (FRAs) to ensure effective controls were adopted to manage fraud and error threats. FRAs articulate the residual risk once control measures have been implemented.

Energy affordability schemes

A major spend initiative in 2022–23 was the implementation of several energy affordability schemes, introduced to reduce the impact of energy cost increases to the public. Significant counter fraud resources were put in place to support these schemes. This included the first ever use of a PSFA ‘Tiger Team’ – a temporary team of subject matter experts to support counter fraud risk assessments and controls during the delivery of a major government initiative. The department established a counter fraud and error board, to ensure robust governance for the schemes. It supports the monitoring of progress and reporting and response to emerging risks. This forum is chaired by the BEIS counter fraud deputy director.

COVID-19 Bounce Back Loan Scheme

The COVID-19 loan schemes had been closed by 2022–23. In 2022–23, our focus on the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) was to detect fraud, and secure recoveries and prosecutions. For the other loan schemes – Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS) and Recovery Loans Scheme (RLS) - the department’s judgement was that there is a normal level of fraud and error within, as explained in the 2021–22 annual report. Estimates of fraud and error for BBLS are provided in the regularity section in the accountability report.

BEIS worked with several agencies. The National Investigation Service (NATIS) investigated the most serious cases of fraud and carried out prosecution work. The Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) tackled misconduct linked with directors of companies and those in bankruptcy. We also worked with PSFA , BBB and Companies House to prevent companies from dissolving while in receipt of an outstanding loan.

BBLS recoveries, arrests, and investigations by NATIS

	2022‑23	2021‑22
BBLS recoveries	£3.5m (£2.8m returned direct to lenders and £0.7m returned to HM Treasury)	£3.8m (£2.6m returned direct to lenders and £1.2m returned to HM Treasury).
BBLS arrests	34	49
Ongoing investigations	211	43

BBLS civil enforcement outcomes by INSS

	2022‑23	2021‑22
Director Disqualification Orders and Undertakings: Allegation Types in Insolvent Disqualifications, Great Britain	956	818
- Of which, COVID-19 financial support scheme abuse (predominantly related to BBLS)	459 (48%)	140 (17%)
Allegation Types in Bankruptcy and Debt Relief Restrictions Orders and Undertakings, Great Britain	268	349
- Of which, COVID-19 financial support scheme abuse (predominantly related to BBLS)	101 (37%)	60 (17%)

Source: Insolvency Service, Enforcement Outcomes 2022–23

Notes:

Director disqualification is the process whereby a person is disqualified, for a specified period, from becoming a director of a company, or directly or indirectly being concerned or taking part in the promotion, formation, or management of a company without permission from the court.
These statistics relate to individuals that are subject to a bankruptcy or debt relief order in England and Wales, where the individual is considered to have been dishonest or blameworthy.

BBLS criminal prosecutions by INSS:

In 2022–23, INSS brought criminal prosecutions against 8 directors for COVID-19 related misconduct. All the prosecutions resulted in a conviction, and in 3 cases, immediate imprisonment.

COVID-19 grant schemes

BEIS continued to work in partnership with NATIS to investigate fraudulent activity within COVID-19 business grant schemes, recovering funds and supporting prosecutions. The table below provides summary figures on enforcement activity in this space.

	2022‑23	2021‑22
Grants recoveries	£158,904	£1,100,000
Grants - arrests	2	32
Ongoing investigations	15	19

Fraud and error statistics

The core department submits its fraud and error data to the Cabinet Office (CO) every quarter, and CO complete an assurance process at the end of the financial year. Fraud and error figures for 2021-22 and 2022–23 will be published after the assurance process in the Fraud Landscape Report.

Complaints to the Parliamentary Ombudsman

	Complaints
Number of complaints accepted for investigation by the Parliamentary Ombudsman in 2021-22	1
Number of investigations reported on in 2021-22*	0
(a) Investigations fully upheld	0
(b) Investigations partly upheld	0
(c) Investigations not upheld	0
Number of Ombudsman recommendations in 2021-22
Complied with	0
Not complied with	0

Notes:

*May include complaints accepted for investigation from a previous year.

These figures have been obtained directly from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman for the period 2021-22. The report can be found here: Complaints to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, 2021-22.

The Ombudsman only accepts complaints that have been through the BEIS internal complaints process. We aim to answer all formal complaints via complaints@beis.gov.uk within 20 working days. Only a small percentage of complaints we receive are escalated to the Ombudsman.

Performance in responding to public correspondence

We aim to respond to 80% of our correspondence in 15 working days. In 2022-23, we received 3,332 written enquiries from members of the public, and responded to 49% of cases within 15 working days.

	2022‑23	2021‑22	2020‑21	2019‑20
No. of written enquiries received	3,332	3,200	7,492	5,099
No. with response within 15 days	1,648	2,284	5,406	4,452
% with response within 15 days	49%	71%	72%	87%

This table below shows our monthly performance. During 2022-23 performance fluctuated, as a result of a higher proportion of complex enquiries, related to rising energy prices, and requiring more time to resolve.

	No. of written enquiries received	No. with response within 15 days	% with response within 15 days
Apr‑22	347	307	88%
May‑22	485	326	67%
Jun‑22	310	244	79%
Jul‑22	345	289	84%
Aug‑22	316	78	25%
Sep‑22	270	60	22%
Oct‑22	135	43	32%
Nov‑22	266	113	42%
Dec‑22	89	11	12%
Jan‑23	224	92	41%
Feb‑23	144	16	11%
Mar‑23	401	69	17%
Total	3,332	1,648	49%

Modern slavery statements are generally published for the preceding year. Following a revised government approach, the core department did not publish its own Modern Slavery Statement for 2021-22. Instead, we contributed to a joint statement covering all ministerial departments. This is currently with the Cabinet Office and Home Office for review.

We designed a streamlined approach to apply the Social Value Model (PPN 06/20). The Social Value Model requires central government departments to deliver social value through their commercial activities. As the model is aligned to broader government priorities, we mapped the themes from the model to deliver BEIS’ departmental mission. This standardised what we asked, making it easier for suppliers to know what to expect from BEIS and improve the quality of social value propositions.

Advertising

The government communications plan directs the communications in all government departments. Our communications work supports the delivery of the department’s priorities.

We work with partners, specifically those who can help us reach and influence our audiences.

Where necessary, we use paid publicity and advertising. Key areas of paid advertising in 2022-23 are listed below.

It all adds up

It promoted simple, no-cost and ‘spend to save’ actions to help people reduce their energy use and bills - in the context of high household energy prices.

The campaign launched in December 2022. We ran advertising on TV, billboards, radio, digital and social channels. We had paid partnerships across online, radio and print, with Bauer and The Telegraph. This included support from radio presenters and trusted voices, like Martin Roberts. We distributed a dedicated 16-page booklet with the newspaper. The campaign reached audiences in innovative ways such as a Snapchat Lens. We targeted locations such as libraries – which have been operating as ‘warm spaces’ – to reach consumers.

The campaign has driven almost 1 million visits to the gov.uk/saveenergy website and increased people’s awareness and understanding of energy saving actions.

Consumer energy support

The scheme provided households with financial help with energy bills over the autumn/ winter 2022-23. Consumers were also able to access support from:

Energy Price Guarantee (EPG)
Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS) – including the Prepayment meter voucher scheme and the Alternative Fund

We ran paid advertising over the winter, across all major channels and worked with trusted influencers. Some messaging was translated into multiple languages.

The campaign helped increase voucher redemption from 59% after the first month of the scheme to 79% by 31 March 2023.

Energy bill relief scheme

The energy bills discount scheme provided a cap on energy costs to help businesses with rising prices over the winter months.

We ran a campaign to raise awareness and understanding among SMEs. The campaign used digital advertising, taking businesses to GOV.UK where they could find out more. Paid media on search and social channels generated 79% of visits to the GOV.UK pages during the 2 phases of the campaign (November to December 2022 and February to March 2023).

Boiler upgrade

The scheme offered property owners in England and Wales up to £6,000 off the cost of low carbon heating systems.

We supported the scheme through an online paid media campaign from January to March 2023 to raise awareness and understanding. We targeted audiences who were more likely to take up the scheme.

Grant uptake statistics are published monthly.

National living wage / national minimum wage

The campaign ran following the rate increases from 1 April 2023.

It aimed to support low paid workers in getting the wage they are entitled to by law.

The campaign featured messaging encouraging workers to ‘Check their pay’. It reached audiences via radio, display, search, online gaming sites (including Angry Birds), and through social media channels.

It delivered over half a million website sessions, 94% more calls to Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) and 149% more clicks to H M R C complaints in 2022 compared to 2021.

Help to grow

The Help to Grow campaign encouraged SME senior decision makers to boost business success by signing up to management courses delivered at leading business schools in the UK , and to apply for vouchers to access discounted software.

Social media and search activity was used to drive individuals online to find out more and apply. The Help to Grow Management campaign trailed Google value based bidding as a government first, and LinkedIn lead generation, which was a BEIS first. Both trials provided cost efficient results and lessons learnt will be applied to future campaign activity across government.

Sarah Munby
Permanent Secretary and Principal Accounting Officer

10 October 2023

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Accountability report

Cookies on GOV.UK

Performance overview

Purpose of the performance overview

Report of the permanent secretary

Our purpose and priorities in 2022 to 2023

Purpose

Priorities

Closure of BEIS and the new departments

Our business model and environment

Organisational structure

Our group

Executive agencies

Consolidated departmental group

NDBPs

Other central government bodies

Wider departmental group

Notes

SR21 metrics

Help businesses to bounce back from the impacts of COVID-19 and support renewed investment in the economy

Reduce UK greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, while supporting green jobs and mobilising investment to deliver a green industrial revolution across the UK

Unleash innovation and accelerate science and technology throughout the country, through increased private and public investment, to increase productivity and UK global influence

Boost enterprise by making the UK the best place in the world to start, grow and invest in a business

Performance summary on priority outcomes

Help businesses to bounce back from the impacts of COVID-19 and support renewed investment in the economy

Boost enterprise by making the UK the best place in the world to start, grow and invest in a business

Reduce UK greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, while supporting green jobs and mobilising investment to deliver a green industrial revolution across the UK

Unleash innovation and accelerate science and technology throughout the country, through increased private and public investment, to increase productivity and UK global influence

Principal risks

Where we spent our money

Performance analysis

Structure of the performance analysis

Performance on priority outcomes

Help businesses to bounce back from the impacts of COVID-19 and support renewed investment in the economy

Contributions to SDGs

Metrics

Boost enterprise by making the UK the best place in the world to start, grow and invest in a business

UK business finance and support

Contribution to SDGs

Metrics

Reduce UK greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, while supporting green jobs and mobilising investment to deliver a green industrial revolution across the UK

Reducing emissions across the economy

Supporting the transition across the economy

Contribution to SDGs

Metrics

Unleash innovation and accelerate science and technology throughout the country to increase productivity and UK global influence

R&D Investment and Levelling Up

International science and research

Horizon Europe and Pioneer

Contribution to SDGs

Metrics

Risk profile

Key

Risks continuing from 2021-22

Risks newly identified in 2022-23

Risks closed or de-escalated in 2022-23

Financial review

Financial performance

Budget framework

Outturn for 2022-23

Outturn compared to budget

2022-23 Outturn compared to budget: variance analysis

Outturn trend

Reconciliation of budgets to financial statements

Expenditure on Official Development Assistance

Financial position

Assets and liabilities

COVID-19 financial guarantees

Loan to Bulb Energy Ltd (in special administration)

Changes in discount rates

Provision for NDA

Provision for contracts for difference

Sustainability report

Greening Government Commitments

Overall performance: targets compared to outcomes

Sustainable procurement

Embedding sustainability in our procurement practices in 2022-23

Prompt payments

Performance in other areas

Fraud and error analysis

Fraud detection, prevention, and estimates