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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 18 March 2021 to Question 168909 on Business: Government Assistance, what the value per (a) capita and (b) business was for the Local Restrictions Support Grant (Open) covering the periods of local covid-19 restrictions between (i) 1 August 2020 to 5 November 2020 and (ii) 2 December 2020 to 5 January 2021.

The Government is committed to continuing to provide financial support via Local Authorities for business premises that are required to close, or which are severely affected by the restrictions put in place to tackle Covid-19 and save lives.

For businesses in Tier 2 and Tier 3, funding was made available to Local Authorities to provide discretionary grants via the Local Restrictions Support Grant (LRSG) (Open). When the national lockdown was announced on 5 January, the LRSG (Open) was replaced by the LRSG (Closed) Addendum: 5 January onwards. From 1 April, the LRSG will be replaced by Restart Grants to support businesses as they begin to reopen.

Discretionary grants – the LRSG (Open) and the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) - are formula based. Data on Government allocations to, and payments by, Local Authorities, of the LRSG (Open) and other Government Business Support Grants, is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-grant-funding-local-authority-payments-to-small-and-medium-businesses.