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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if the Government will offer financial support to SMEs that become insolvent following payment of statutory sick pay relating to the covid-19 outbreak.

The Government will support small and medium enterprises and individual employers to cope with the extra costs of paying COVID-19-related Statutory Sick Pay (SSP). Eligible SSP costs will be refunded for two weeks per employee from the day on which regulations extending SSP to self-isolators come into force. This will provide 2 million businesses with support worth up to £2 billion to cover the costs of large-scale sick leave.