Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many complaints about the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme his Department has received in each year since the inception of that scheme.

Delivery of EFG is fully devolved to over 40 participating lenders, each of which has their own arrangements for handling customer complaints. The Department does not mediate in disputes between individual borrowers and lenders. Any business complaining to BIS or the British Business Bank is guided in the first instance to follow their lender’s complaints procedure. Upon exhaustion of that process the next step for dealing with an unresolved dispute in most instances will be to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service.