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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the funding distribution equation for discretionary business support is calculated by local authority population or by individual business size; and if he will publish the methodology for the distribution of discretionary business support funds.

The methodology for calculating grant allocations for the discretionary business grant funds has been published in Government guidance for Local Authorities which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-grant-funding-local-authority-payments-to-small-and-medium-businesses.

There are two discretionary schemes which have been available for specified periods from August 2020 - the Local Restrictions Support Grant (Open) and the Additional Restrictions Grant.

For the Local Restrictions Support Grant (Open), applicable between the 1 August- 5 November 2020 and between 5^th December 2020 and 5^th January 2021, in areas where local Covid-19 restrictions were in place, the relevant Local Authorities were issued funding allocations which were calculated using Valuations Office Agency (VOA) data on the number of hospitality, accommodation and leisure businesses in the Local Authority geography, plus a 5% top up.

For the Additional Restrictions Grant, the initial allocation and subsequent additional allocations were based on ONS 2019 Mid-Year Population Estimate for the total population within a given Local Authority.