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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing measures to tackle the difficulties that businesses that use holding companies for accounting purposes have encountered in passing the British Business Bank's Borrower Viability Test to access the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme.

Individual lending decisions under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) are delegated to over 50 lenders accredited under the Scheme.

The British Business Bank has issued clear guidance to all accredited lenders on assessing viability for CBILS. For example, it includes guidance on assessing group undertakings and Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs). It is for the individual lender to determine their own definition of a holding company based on this guidance.