In Parliament this Tuesday, North Warwickshire and Bedworth MP Craig Tracey launched the first All Party Parliamentary Group on Women And Enterprise Report in his capacity as Chair of the APPG for Women and Enterprise.
Titled "The future of female entrepreneurship - Pathways to progress", it has been 3 years in the making and sets out recommendations for Government, private sector organisations and financial services institutions to help create more female business owners or help them scale up their businesses.
The keynote speech at the launch was delivered by RT Hon Penny Mordaunt MP, Secretary of State for Defence and Minister for Women & Equalities. Craig was also delighted to be joined by Victoria Atkins MP, Minister for Women and Kelly Tollhurst MP, Minister for Small Business.
Other speeches given were by excellent supporters of the group and key advocates of female Entrepreneurship, Claire Vyvyan from Dell Technologies and Julie Baker from Nat West Bank.
Speaking at the launch, Craig Tracey MP said:
"It is a fantastic group to Chair, but I am often asked why does this subject matter? Well, quite simply, if we equalised female participation in entrepreneurship, it could add an extra £250bn to the UK economy and $28tr to the world economy. This is not just a "nice" thing to do - it makes huge financial sense.
What I love about this report is that it has not been written by MPs, think tanks or theorists. It has been written from real life experiences by women who have been on (or are still going through) that journey themselves. That is what makes it so powerful!
I cannot thank the group enough for the hard work that they have put in - it has been a pleasure to work with them, but this is just the start....."
If you would like to read a copy of the report, you can access it at: https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track…