EXCLUSIVE: Government defends £100,000 spend by Women's Enterprise Taskforce

The government has backed the work of a group set up to investigate how to better support female entrepreneurs after it was criticised for spending almost £100,000 on making recommendations for initiatives similar to those which already exist.

The Women's Enterprise Taskforce (WET) was established in 2006 "to increase the quantity, scalability and success of women-owned businesses in the UK". Its three year term came to an end last year and in that time, according to figures obtained by the Conservatives this week, it clocked up £95,430 in costs, expenses and travel bills.

Recommendations by WET were adopted by the government in November 2009 but critics claim they are broadly similar to schemes and initiatives already in existance.

The group recommended, for instance, the setting up of a new women's enterprise forum even though the WET itself was set up in 2006 with almost identical aims. It also said regional "women's enterprise champions" should be created despite several hundred female business ambassadors being appointed in 2007. According to press reports, some of the ambassadors claim they have not been contacted by the government since being given the role.

But the government was quick to defend the WET with a spokesperson telling BusinessZone.co.uk: "The work of the Women's Enterprise Task Force has contributed to our understanding of the challenges faced in increasing female entrepreneurship rates in the UK and we are implementing a number of their important recommendations."

Responding to accusations over the similarity of the recommendations to existing schemes, she added they are "quite clearly not" the same as those adopted by the then small business minister Margaret Hodge in 2007.

She also said that the new champions will be have "a slightly different role" to the currrent ambassadors comparing it to the position held by Lord Sugar, the government's enterprise champion. "They will look at what goes on in the regions and feed back to the Department [for Business, Innovation and Skills] what's going on as opposed to the ambassadors who provide mentoring, school talks and other services," she said.

The spokesperson denied that the champions are likely to be "celebrity" entrepreneurs such as Lord Sugar and Martha Lane Fox, the digital champion. So far, one champion - Angela Maxwell, who runs consultancy Acuwomen, has been appointed.

The WET also recommended the continuation of the Aspire Fund, set up in 2008 £25m to provide investment for female-run businesses. As previously exclusively reported by BusinessZone.co.uk however, the fund has been plagued by problems. The spokesperson confirmed that so far only £3.53m has been invested in four businesses. Some 149 have applied, she added.

BusinessZone.co.uk requested the government's latest data for the rate of female entrepreneurship in the UK. The Department for Business has yet to provide it.