Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the financial effect of covid-19 travel restrictions on the operation of English Language Teaching Centres.

We recognise that COVID-19 restrictions are significantly impacting tourism across the country, and that these remain extremely challenging conditions for businesses such as English Language Teaching Centres, which are important to the supply chain.

English Language Schools have been, and are, able to benefit from a wide variety of Government support, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which has been extended until September, a variety of generous Government backed loan schemes and grants through the Additional Restrictions Grant scheme, although this is for England only.

The guidance for the Additional Restrictions Grant funding was updated on 22 March to include the £425m top-up from 1 April 2021. This states that Local Authorities are encouraged to support businesses from all sectors that may have been severely impacted by restrictions, but are not eligible for the Restart Grant scheme. The document states that this may include English Language Schools, alongside a number of other businesses.

Although funding issued under the Additional Restrictions Grant scheme is ultimately issued at the discretion of Local Authorities, we encourage and expect them to be sympathetic to applications from English Language Schools, as well as other businesses in the tourism supply chain which have been affected by COVID-19 restrictions.