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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reason Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme lenders are not required to notify the British Business Bank of the repayment of loans.

Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme lenders are not specifically required to notify the British Business Bank of loan repayments. This is because, at the time the scheme was launched, a decision was taken to streamline administrative burdens on lenders to allow them to concentrate resources on processing the large number of applications from businesses.

However, lenders do have an overarching duty to ensure that accurate records are kept, and loans that have reached maturity are automatically removed from the Bank’s web based reporting tool.

Further information related to loan repayments for the Government’s Covid-19 loan schemes will be included in the Department’s 2020-21 Annual Report and Accounts, to be published in due course