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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many times Departmental officials have met with individual businesses awarded support under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme since 1 January 2020.

As of 18 October 2020, 73,094 loans totalling £17.16 billion have been approved under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS). For commercial confidentiality reasons, the British Business Bank cannot disclose whether businesses are or are not in receipt of support without their approval. As such, we are only aware of businesses that are in receipt of a Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan where they have publicly disclosed this information.

The Government will continue to work closely with local authorities, businesses, business representative organisations, and the financial services sector to monitor the implementation of current support and understand whether there is additional need.