Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many companies that received Bounce Back loans were set up after March 2020.

As of 22 February 2022, Cabinet Office analysis has identified 3,761 loans as having been issued to companies incorporated after 1 March 2020. Businesses had to be established on or before 1 March 2020 to be eligible. However, some businesses may have been carrying out business before 1 March 2020 as sole traders and partnerships, and chose to incorporate subsequently. A legitimate business which changed its legal form in this way was still eligible for the scheme.