Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has bring forward legislative proposals to ban companies from profiteering during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government remains committed to tackling consumer rip-offs and bad business practices, including profiteering.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has written to firms suspected of profiteering to challenge unjustifiable price increases. To date, the CMA has written to 264 firms, accounting for over 3,100 complaints, about price rises for essential products.
The Government continues to monitor the extent of profiteering and will update the law if it is proportionate to do so.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the number of social enterprises that have received Coronavirus Business Interruption Loans.
Answered by Paul Scully
The British Business Bank does not provide a breakdown on the issuance of loans under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) to social enterprises.
As of 29 April, in total over £4.1 billion worth of loans have been issues under the CBILS across all sectors, to over 25,262 businesses. We are working with the British Business Bank, HM Treasury and the lenders on providing transparent and regular data publication going forward.