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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many and what proportion of coronavirus restart grants applied for by businesses in Southport were approved by Sefton Borough Council before 17 May 2021.

The £5 billion Restart Grants scheme announced by my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer on 3 March 2021 are one-off grants to businesses in the non-essential retail, hospitality, leisure, personal care and accommodation sectors to support businesses to reopen as Covid-19 restrictions are lifted in the coming months.

Businesses in the non-essential retail sector are able to apply for grants of up to £6,000.  Businesses in the hospitality, leisure, personal care and gym sectors are able to apply for grants of up to £18,000.

We are not able to share a breakdown of the funding distributed by Sefton Borough Council at this stage. We will publish data on Restart Grant payments in due course.

All data on Government allocations and Local Authority payments of grant schemes is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-grant-funding-local-authority-payments-to-small-and-medium-businesses.