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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps (a) he and (b) his Department is taking to increase the number of accredited financial institutions taking part in the Bounce Back Loan Scheme.

Accrediting lenders for the Bounce Back Loan Scheme has been a priority for the British Business Bank. The Bank therefore put in place substantial additional resources to support new lender accreditation as well as creating a streamlined process within the Bank to help onboard new lenders as quickly as possible.

The Bank has expanded the pool of delivery partners from seven at launch to 29 accredited lenders currently, substantially increasing access to the scheme for small businesses. The scheme remains open to new lenders to apply for accreditation and the Bank will continue to assess new applications while the scheme remains open.