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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what advice he has given to local authorities on providing financial support for fox hunts from covid-19 funding schemes during the covid-19 outbreak.

The Government put forward an unprecedented package of support, including loan schemes, grant funding and wage packages, to help as many individuals and business as possible during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

This support package included the?Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund (RHLGF) which was provided via local authorities to support small businesses and businesses in some of the sectors?hardest hit by the measures taken to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

The Government also created a Local Authority Discretionary Grants Scheme to ensure that local authorities could use their knowledge and discretion to direct funds to businesses not covered by the SBGF or the RHLGF. In recognition that economic need varied across the country, government set some national criteria for this fund but allowed local authorities to determine which cases to support within those criteria.

The guidance provided to local authorities on all three of these schemes are available on gov.uk. No specific advice in respect of fox hunts was provided to local authorities as part of the guidance around these schemes.