Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he can recover payments made to the Islamic Centre of England in Maida Vale, London, under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme as a result of that organisation's links with the Iranian government.

We do not comment on the commercial or financial matters of identifiable organisations.

In designing the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the Government has taken steps to protect public money against error, fraud, and abuse. Where the recipients of payments are found not to have been entitled to the money they have received, the Government has made provision for relevant powers and mechanisms to allow the money to be recovered and, where appropriate, penalties issued. These mechanisms have already been used to make recoveries and further compliance work is ongoing. However, there would be no basis for HMRC to set out to recover a grant from an employer that met the rules of the scheme.