Sections · PESA departmental group
Business and Trade
The Department for Business and Trade and its bodies. In 2025-26 the bodies in this section spent £3.9bn on services. £1.3bn of it (34.7%) can be followed to who received it, and at most 41.3% counting payees who are named but can't be identified yet.
- Reached an identified organisation
- Reached a recipient the publisher did not name
- Reached people, counted by benefit
- Reached staff (pay) or holders of government debt (interest), followed as one published total
- Named payee, not yet identified (may be another public body)
- Not followed
How far it is followed, and why the rest can't be
- Payees probably public bodies, awaiting review£301mmeasured
A proposed match names a public body for these payees, so this money was most likely passed on to another part of government, not spent here. Until a person reviews the match it is not counted as followed or as passed on.
- Below the publication threshold
Payments under £25,000 (central government and the NHS) or £500 (councils) are not published one by one. Some publishers list every payment anyway; most do not.
- Pay: followed to staff as one total£1.0bnmeasured
Wages are never published person by person, and must not be. The staff costs of the 6 bodies in this section, from HM Treasury's OSCAR database (2025-26, provisional outturn), are counted as followed to their staff.
Where the records come from
Each publisher's 2025-26 payment records, and where their money went. "Identified" means matched to a registered company, charity or other organisation outside government; "named only", a payee named in the record but not yet matched; "passed on", paid to another public body.
| Publisher | Months | Records | Identified | Named only | Withheld | Passed on |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Department for Business and Trade | 12 | 2,913 | £324m | £215m | £0 | £1.4bn |
| UK Export Finance group assumed | 12 | 480 | £11m | £40m | £0 | £6m |
The largest payees not yet identified
Payees paid £5m or more. Named in the records as shown, but not yet matched to a registered organisation or a public body. Some may be public bodies; until they are matched they are counted as followed by name only.
| Payee, as published | 2025-26 |
|---|---|
| GSSC PAYMENTS | £88m |
| ACAS | £65m |
| AERGO CAPITAL LIMITED USD | £18m |
| OMNICOM MEDIA GROUP UK LTD T/A MANNING GOTTLIEB OMD | £14m |
| HOWE AND CO SOLICITORS | £11m |
| WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION | £7m |
| SCOTTISH ASSOCIATION CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAUX | £6m |
| AERGO CAPITAL LIMITED EUR | £5m |
What PESA says this section spends on
| Function | 2025-26 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Economic affairs | £2.5bn | 65% |
| Social protection | £1.3bn | 33% |
| General public services | £56m | 1% |