Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many proposed redundancies were indicated on HR1 forms received by the Redundancy Payments Service in each month since January 2019.
Answered by Paul Scully
The table below sets out the volume of proposed redundancies indicated on HR1 forms received between January 2019 and December 2020:
| Volume of proposed redundancies indicated on HR1 forms received by the Redundancy Payments Service | |
| 2019 | 2020 |
Jan | 28,138 | 29,496 |
Feb | 32,189 | 27,804 |
Mar | 41,626 | 44,235 |
Apr | 85,913 | 61,502 |
May | 35,229 | 73,254 |
Jun | 23,932 | 155,576 |
Jul | 21,372 | 149,301 |
Aug | 22,581 | 57,749 |
Sep | 26,575 | 81,670 |
Oct | 23,798 | 51,351 |
Nov | 27,652 | 36,686 |
Dec | 17,412 | 23,083 |
Employers are only required to file a Form HR1 where they are “proposing” to dismiss 20 or more employees at a single “establishment”.
“Propose” and “establishment” have distinct meanings in this context.
The aggregate number could include proposed dismissals due to insolvency, restructuring of a solvent/continuing business, or proposed relocation of employees, for example.
It should be noted that a proposal to make a given number of dismissals does not necessarily result in all or any of the proposed dismissals occurring.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding each local authority will receive from the £594 million discretionary fund to support businesses affected by the covid-19 outbreak announced by the Chancellor on 5 January 2021.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government has put forward an unprecedented package of support to help businesses which are severely affected by restrictions put in place to tackle Covid-19 and save lives. This package of support includes the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) which was announced in November 2020 to provide discretionary business grants and wider business support in England. An initial £1.1 billion was allocated to Local Authorities under this scheme in November, and a further £500 million of top-up ARG funding was announced at the start of the third lockdown period in January.
This funding is shared between all Local Authorities in England and we are working closely with Local Authorities to ensure that support is delivered to businesses that are in scope as quickly as possible.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much and what proportion of funding received by each local authority through the additional restrictions grant has been disbursed, by local authority.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government has put forward an unprecedented package of support to help businesses which are severely affected by restrictions put in place to tackle Covid-19 and save lives. This package of support includes the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) which was announced in November 2020 to provide discretionary business grants and wider business support in England. An initial £1.1 billion was allocated to Local Authorities under this scheme in November, and a further £500 million of top-up ARG funding was announced at the start of the third lockdown period in January 2021.
This support is available through all Local Authorities in England and they have the discretion to use this funding to help businesses in the way they see fit. We are working closely with Local Authorities to ensure that funding is delivered to businesses that are in scope as quickly as possible.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many businesses in each local authority are eligible for the one off grant payments announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 5 January 2021; and how much funding each local authority area will receive to pay those grants.
Answered by Paul Scully
On 5 January 2021, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced one-off top-up grants, worth up to £9,000 per property, to help retail, hospitality and leisure businesses affected by the new closures through to Spring. This is in addition to the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG), announced in November 2020 and which received a £500 million top-up in January 2021 to support other businesses affected by the new lockdown rules.
We have worked with Local Authorities to best calculate the amount of funding required, using business rates data and local business information, and are working with places to ensure that funding reaches businesses that are in scope as quickly as possible.