Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the number of businesses that will be excluded from the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund due to the exclusion of the event catering industry from the Government's definition of the hospitality industry.

The Government does not hold this information.

The Government recognises that this is a very challenging time for businesses in a wide variety of sectors. Small businesses occupying properties for retail, hospitality or leisure purposes are likely to be particularly affected by COVID-19 due to their reliance on customer footfall, and the fact that they are less likely than larger businesses to have sufficient cash reserves to meet their high fixed property-related costs. The Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund is intended to help small businesses in this situation.

Local Authorities can choose to make discretionary grants to businesses in other sectors if they feel there is a particular local economic need. However, the priority of all the grants schemes continues to be to help the smallest businesses, and small businesses which are facing significant property-related costs and operate in sectors which have been particularly hard hit by the steep decline in customer footfall.