Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many small and medium-sized businesses in (a) Barnsley East constituency, (b) South Yorkshire and (c) England and Wales have (i) applied for and (ii) been granted loans by the British Business Bank in the last year.

The British Business Bank oversees the management of two loan programmes that can be accessed by small and medium–sized businesses seeking debt finance; Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) and Start-Up Loans (SUL).

EFG is delivered by participating lenders, including all the main high street banks, while SUL is delivered by a network of delivery partners contracted by the Start-Up Loans Company.

The delivery of both programmes is fully devolved to the participating lenders and for consistency they primarily report the numbers of loans offered or drawn rather than the number of applications received.