Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of requiring repayment of covid business support grants that were (a) paid in error by local authorities, (b) received and spent in good faith and (c) only identified several years after the original payment on small community sports clubs.

The various business grant schemes were a vital component of support for many businesses during the Covid-19 crisis. However, due to the speed of delivery, payments were made in good faith and in some cases following post payment compliance checks, some awards were identified as being made when they didn’t qualify for the support. In such cases, to protect public money these funds are recovered.

Recovery action is assessed on a case-by-case basis, with repayment terms on an interest-free basis offered to support businesses required to repay funds.