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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to ensure that companies do not dismiss workers who could be furloughed under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

The Government introduced the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to help firms to continue to keep people on the payroll in these extraordinary times. It is designed to help employers whose operations have been severely affected by coronavirus to retain their employees and protect the UK economy. All employers are eligible to claim under the scheme and the Government recognises different businesses will face different impacts from coronavirus.

The Department is working with business representative groups and industry contacts to encourage firms to use the Scheme, in particular to retain staff whom they would otherwise have to make redundant.