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

To ask His Majesty's Government what communication they have had with the Approved Arbitration bodies established as a result of the Commercial Rent (Coronavirus) Act 2022.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy engaged with the arbitral bodies and with stakeholders to keep oversight of uptake of the scheme and to determine if initial stakeholder concerns about cost and capacity had any substance. We reminded parties in August of the closing deadlines for the submission of cases.

The deadline for the submission of cases recently passed on 23 September 2022 and arbitrators are in the process of considering the cases submitted and will be publishing the outcomes as required by the Act. The assessment of the impact of the Act is ongoing and will be published in due course.