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.

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.