Business: Coronavirus

(asked on 1st March 2021) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for his policies that only 54 per cent of the mandatory grants given to businesses that have been required to close due to the covid-19 outbreak have been paid out to eligible businesses as of 17 January 2021.


Answered by
Paul Scully Portrait
Paul Scully
This question was answered on 4th March 2021

The Government is working closely with local authorities in England to support the implementation of business grants during the Covid-19 pandemic and monitor the distribution of grant funds.

The data published on GOV.UK regarding the Additional Restrictions Grant is based upon self-reporting by Local Authorities up to the 17th January 2021. The time period in question includes periods of localised restrictions, which saw many Local Authorities moved quickly between Tiers, complicating the administrative process as business eligibility for grants changed alongside Tiers.

Further data will be published in due course that will set out performance figures for the current period of national restrictions where there has been a consistent grant offer for local authorities to administer.

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