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Small Businesses: Skilled Workers

Asked by Callum AndersonLabourDepartment for Business and TradeTabled Answered 15 June 2026UIN 8413

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that small and medium-sized scale-up firms are able to benefit from the Global Talent Taskforce.

Answered by Blair McDougall

The Global Talent Taskforce is already helping high-growth founders choose the UK as a base to land, build and scale. Through tailored visa support, relocation advice and introductions to UK peers, investors and networks, we are helping exceptional international talent and innovative firms embed and expand here. For example, the Taskforce supported UK AI scale-up Granola to overcome barriers to bringing in senior international hires, including unblocking a delayed process within 24 hours to safeguard a business-critical hire. This builds on new measures announced by the Chancellor on 10 June, including visa fee reimbursement for scale-ups in digital and tech, life sciences and clean energy.

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