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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the Government plans to expand the State Aid Temporary Framework and financial cap, in line with the EU expansion announced on 28 January 2021, for existing business support measures such as the Local Restrictions Support Grant.

The EU State aid rules and limits no longer apply in the UK, except in respect of aid in scope of the Withdrawal Agreement, for example, Article 10 of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Subsidies must instead meet the terms of the EU-UK Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA) as well as the other Free Trade Agreements we have reached with the rest of the world and our WTO commitments.

The State aid Temporary Framework provisions set out in previous iterations of local authority grant support guidance should still be applied to these schemes until further guidance on domestic subsidy control related to these schemes is issued.

The Government is currently consulting on its proposed approach for establishing a bespoke UK-wide subsidy control regime. The Government is keeping under close review the impact of subsidy control rules on the ability of businesses to access grants and will publish new guidance as and when circumstances require it.